Power Play
by TimeGuardian
Summary: Alan is graduating from school, and his father is ready to offer him the summer off to do what he wants. Meanwhile, a mysterious organization has plans for the Hood. Movieverse with tv verse elements together.
1. Danger Zone

**_Power Play  
_**A Thunderbirds Fan fiction  
By Time Guardian

Summary: A few years after the attack on Thunderbird Five, Alan Tracy is graduating Wharton Academy and his father is ready to allow him the tradition of choosing a summer activity to get into before joining International Rescue. Meanwhile, a mysterious organization has plans for the Hood…

_Chapter One – Danger Zone _

Scott Tracy felt as nervous as the first time that he had commanded an International Rescue operation. They had been called to a scene where there were several car crash victims, which normally in itself would have been simple, but the conditions made it downright dangerous.

The mountain road that they had been called to had suffered a fog bank of the worst kind. A temperature inversion along with the chemical smoke coming from a factory only a few miles away made for a solid white fog that laid low across the road. At least three cars had gotten snared in its obliterating visibility before someone had enough sense to call the authorities who in turn called the Thunderbirds due to the isolated and dangerous nature of the accident scene.

After careful a careful flyover and scan of the area in Thunderbird One, Scott determined that two of the cars were precariously perched over the curve, threatening to drop into the canyon that the mountain overlooked. The third had taken a plunge over the curve, only to be stopped by an outstretched tree branch jutting out from the lower part of the mountain.

Thanks to the assistance of Thunderbird Two's scanners and tow ropes, Virgil and Gordon had made short work of the two cars that were still partially on the road, being able to steady them and drag them away from the precarious edge. The paramedics that were on-scene were then able to evacuate each of the car's occupants, who miraculously escaped with only minor injuries.

Scott did his best to evaluate the exact position of the last car despite the lingering white fog. Brains had come along on this rescue and was furiously working from Thunderbird Two in order to make a compound to quickly dissipate the fog. Until they could get that fog out of their way, he had to stay close to the mountain to do his scan, which was making him feel very uneasy. Opportunity finally came with a brief gap in the fog, and Scott managed to get an idea of the size and shape of the branch that was holding the car up.

The branch itself was quite large, splitting outwards about halfway down its length, making the whole thing look like a y shape. Cradled at the midpoint of the branch, the small compact car looked like it would blow over at anytime.

After gauging the slope of the mountain, a quick plan formed in his mind, and Scott contacted Thunderbird Two to relay what he had in mind. "Thunderbird One to Thunderbird Two, Virgil, have Gordon deploy the rescue platform and lower it to the height of where that car is situated. I'm going to land and rappel down to the car to feed the victim over to the rescue platform."

That plan had come into question quicker than Scott thought it would.

Gordon's dissention exploded over the communication link. "Are you nuts? You have seen that fog out there. You were lucky to be able to see the car from your vantage point in Thunderbird One, how are you going to be able to guide yourself down the mountain to the car if you can't see it?"

Bless Brains, the miracle maker. Seconds after Gordon made his opinion known, the scientist came on the line from his position in the cargo area of Thunderbird Two. "I-I got the chemical ready for you, Scott. It is in powder form, and s-should be what we need to dis- dis- make that fog go poof."

Scott quirked a smile at Brain's use of the word poof, but the news only served to reaffirm the decision in his mind. "Now that we have a way to take care of that fog," he declared over the communication link, "We will go with the plan as I laid it out. There's not much choice, that mountain slope is too steep to risk getting the rescue platform any closer than fifty feet. There would also be no way to steady the car and get the victims out safely if a good strong wind comes through without a guiding hand from someone nearer the car. Are we clear?"

Virgil and Gordon's voices were unanimous. "FAB."

* * *

Coming up with the plan and putting it into play turned out to be two separate challenges. Scott landed Thunderbird One near a flat part of the mountain about a mile away from the scene. Scott scrambled back down along the road carrying climbing gear that he had stored in Thunderbird One.

As he approached the scene, Scott noticed that Thunderbird Two was hovering above, dispersing the powder that brains had told him about. Within minutes, the white haze that had obliterated the view of the mountain curve had disappeared, leaving a clear view of the precarious position of the last car.

Scott moved to the edge of the curve overlooking the trapped car, then shrugged into the harness he had brought with him, securing a main and a safety line both to the each of the harness straps near his waist. From his belt, he hooked a small bag containing first aid supplies. Above him Thunderbird Two hovered, and Scott could see the rescue platform being lowered. As he had suspected, due to the slope of the mountain Scott saw that the closest the platform could get was right around fifty feet, but if he could secure what passengers he found using safety lines from the platform, Gordon could haul them to safety, leaving Scott free to climb back up on his line.

He grabbed what had looked like a small air gun from the other side of his belt and fired it at the ground just at the edge where he was planning to climb down. There was a hiss of air, then a large hook and anchor shot out, embedding itself deeply into the ground in front of him. Scott quickly tugged on it to make sure it was in solid, and then quickly set to work, setting up both lines and routing them through his harness and the hook in the ground. With the proper knots to keep everything secure, Scott turned around and took a breath. With the exception of climbing the climbing wall at the gym, he had not personally been mountain climbing since he was a teenager, and as far as rescues went, normally Scott was safe and sound in Thunderbird One, relying on his 'bird to do the work for him. This would definitely be a challenge to say the least.

After hooking up an earpiece communicator, Scott looped the rope in his hands, and with a thought and a prayer, slowly stepped back and outward. When he dropped over the edge lowering himself down hand over hand, Scott was thankful for keeping his flight gloves on. It seemed tedious at first, but after a few feet, he finally found himself on an even level with the car. Luck seemed to be on his side for the moment - the winds that had brought the blinding haze through in the first place seemed to have left. The large tree branch that was holding the car steady seemed to be unmoving.

The car itself was a small economical model, the type his brother Alan would say "need a shoehorn and luck to get into." Looking inside, he could see the head of a young man slumped back against the seat, and judging by his looks, did not look to be more than eighteen years old. Scott quickly spoke into his earpiece communicator. "Jeez, Gordon we have a kid in the car, and looks to be the only occupant. Male, looks to be about eighteen. Shoot over a line and a harness would you?"

His brother replied quickly. "FAB."

While Gordon was prepping what he would need, Scott carefully secured another hook for himself beside the tree and secured one of his lines to it. Now that he had a secure point to work from, he carefully opened the door of the car and took a better look at the teenager in the front seat.

The teen had dark brown hair that was tied off into a short ponytail behind him. His eyes were closed, and leaning far back into his seat, no doubt influenced by the deployment of the airbag, which lay deflated on the floorboard. After a quick inspection and determination that the kid did not have any ribs broken, Scott reached into his case at his belt and brought out an inflatable neck brace of Brain's creation. Upon exposure to the sunlight, a small solar battery cell at the base of the unit inflated the whole thing, turning it into a full sized neck brace in mere seconds.

There was a hiss of air, and Scott saw that Gordon had shot over the line he would need from the rescue platform. The hook at the end of the line embedded itself deeply into the nearby rock. Around him, Scott could feel the wind pick up, and he knew that their time was short.

Scott took care to put the brace around the boy's neck, and after securing it using the provided Velcro closures, nudged himself back out of the car to grab for the line that Gordon had shot over. The line from the rescue platform had secured about a foot away from his position, and from it dangled a small portable harness. With as much caution as he could muster, Scott used the leverage of his own line and shimmied over until he has able to grab the harness and let out enough line to where he could take it over to where the car was. It took precious moments and careful maneuvering, but Scott managed to feed the straps around the unconscious boy, and secured them tightly. "Okay Gordon, take him in slow."

From a signal on the rescue platform, Scott watched as the winch tightened the line and with a little nudging, the teen was lifted out of the car seat and swung out towards the line that Gordon had used. He stayed in position as victim was remotely drawn up into the confines of the rescue platform. Moments later, he got the confirmation that he was looking for. "I've got him Scott, safe and sound. Get yourself back up that mountain."

Scott smiled. Chalk up another rescue completed to International Rescue. "FAB, Gordon, I am on my way."

He turned to adjust his lines for the climb back up when one of his knots came undone. Scott shouted in surprise as he quickly slid downwards towards the canyon below.

"SCOTT!"

Scott shut out Gordon 's frantic voice as he struggled to get a good hold on both of his ropes, and gripped them as tightly as he could. Just as quickly his impromptu descent started, it stopped just as quickly. Tremors from the adrenaline rush coursed through him as he quickly moved to make a new knot to replace the one that had failed him. Scott had chosen to take this part of the assignment, but berated himself for the quality of his knots that had been keeping him in place. He made a mental note to get to the gym with the rock climbing wall at his earliest opportunity.

Scott took a shuddering breath as he realized Gordon was still squawking in his ear. "Scott! You better answer me or I swear dad will find out about those personal phone calls-"

He couldn't help it - his brother resorting to blackmail to get an answer from him? Scott chuckled. "I'm fine, Gordon. The pride was hurt more than anything else, and if you dare tell dad about those personal phone calls, I will regail him with tales on what truly happened to his prized sailboat. Now let me get back up this safety line."

After he calmed his breathing, Scott maneuvered his lines and made the painful journey back up to where he had started from. His hands ached from where he had stopped himself from falling, but the gloves should have protected him from getting any major rope burn.

Hand over hand, Scott used his upper arm strength along with what traction he could find with his feet to scale back up the mountain. Minutes later, when Scott was only a foot away from his goal, he heard a huge groan and then a crash. Looking behind him, he realized the car that they had recovered the teen from had become dislodged from its perch and careened into the canyon below with a loud metallic crash. He continued the climb until he had reached the roadway, but he couldn't quite get that crashing noise out of his head.

_That had been way too close for comfort. _

* * *

Thunderbird Two had taken off with the injured passengers, and after Scott spoke with the local authorities who had called in a couple of tow trucks to clear the rest of the wreckage, he gathered up his climbing gear and turned to walk back up the road back to Thunderbird One.

Minutes later, Scott stowed his gear in Thunderbird One's hold and wiped the sweat off his brow. This had not been his first time in command at a danger zone, but it had been a hairy one indeed.

There was a good reason he was in command today. His brother Alan Tracy was graduating from Wharton Academy and his father, Jefferson Tracy, was traveling there to watch it happen.

At first when Alan had called home with the news of his final marks and that he would be graduation with a strong B average, Scott could hardly believe it. This was the same kid that only years earlier had with the help of his friends, frustrated the Hood, foiled his plan to rob the World Banks, and restore communications to Thunderbird Five when they had thought the situation had been hopeless. He had also been the same one to see how Alan went from someone who would cut corners to get what he wanted, into a methodical person who had worked hard for this day to come.

His dad had faith in Alan, Scott could tell. The only thing that had held Alan back was the over eagerness that he had exhibited initially. Dad knew best - he had seen similar ambitions in all of his sons to one degree or another. Scott remembered all too well the lecture he had received initially when he was in boarding school after a certain chemistry lab 'incident' that had initially given his teachers a very colorful impression of him.

Alan would find his niche soon enough. If Scott remembered right, dad would be offering Alan the summer off to do what he wanted before he went forward with any plans for college or the 'family business.'

Scott smirked at the prospect. He had a feeling of what his brother would choose, and he only hoped that his father was prepared for the consequences.

He climbed the ladder on Thunderbird One and opened the canopy, setting his protesting body in the cushioned comfort of the pilot's seat. If he hurried, there would be just enough time to report in to John and then get home for a shower and a much-needed nap.

"Thunderbird One to Thunderbird Five, come in."

High in space, Thunderbird Five space station orbited high above Earth. Ever since the attack on the station years ago, the security protocols protecting its location were agreed upon by and strengthened by Jeff Tracy and Brains. After a few high profile space rescues, the Prime Minister of Britain and the President of the United States also came to a mutual agreement that the location of the space station would best be served as a secret of the highest order.

On the main communications deck, John Tracy leaned back in his chair and had been listening to the audio of the rescue his brothers were on. It had seemed pretty normal, up until when Scott nearly slipped off the side of the mountain. John had already acknowledged Thunderbird Two as they had taken off for the local hospital, and if he knew his brother well enough, Scott should be calling in 3, 2 -

"Thunderbird One to Thunderbird Five, come in."

John smiled as he acknowledged the communication and Scott's face quickly came up on his video communicator screen. "Scott, you are a second early, that's a new record for you."

He bit back a laugh as he saw Scott shake his head in exasperation and retort. "I am not that predictable! Seesh, can not you take my report like a normal brother? I kind of had enough of life in the command chair for the moment anyway."

"Hey, you did well in the command chair today. That kid is safe because of you," John countered, "though judging by Gordon's tale, you need to bone up on your knot tying. How about we go climbing when I come down there next time?"

Scott smiled. "That might be a while, especially with Alan graduating and dad getting ready to make him the big summer offer. Remember when I told him what I wanted to do with my summer before coming on board to International Rescue?"

John laughed. "Do I ever. I think I finally got over that fit of laughing when you appeared on "Survivor: Moon base. However, I thought you were supposed to put on that infamous Tracy charm of yours, not be the first one voted off."

Scott's embarrassed look told him enough. Stifling his laughter, John continued. "Still it is good to see dad getting out of the driver's seat even for a little while. Alan told me the other night that he was eager to spill his summer plans right away, but I recommended to him to get the graduation over first before trying to give dad a coronary."

Scott groaned. His suspicions had been verified. "You don't mean-"

John nodded. "Yup. Our own resident speed demon is itching to get near a racetrack."

"That's asking for trouble," Scott smirked, "I think dad is still trying to steel his nerves from where he bought him a motorcycle as his graduation gift. Ah well, we will know the fallout soon enough. Alan's graduation is only a few hours away. Meanwhile my ETA home should be two hours from now. After all of that climbing, I need a shower and few hours of Z's. Thunderbird One out."

As Scott's face disappeared from the screen, John settled back into his chair on Thunderbird 5 and turned to watch the Earth through the view port. From his vantage point, the sun was just starting to peek out from its hiding spot, casting it's brilliant influence over the planet.

_A new day is dawning. _

* * *

In a distant undersea base, a man watched and waited as weak threads of sunlight illuminated the sea bed around him. Another day was dawning and it was time to act.

His plan was large and ambitious, and needed many things to come together if he wanted to dominate the world. He would need to bring many elements together, one of which was rotting away in a British prison of sorts. The rest would fall into place with the agents he had recruited around the world. Victory would be sure and swift, and no organization would be able to stop them, not even the Thunderbirds. Since his agent had so much trouble in the past with them, he decided to deal with them first. No distractions meant that his plan could proceed.

Then every major world power would be at his beck and call to control.

* * *

_See my profile for more details about this project. This is my first foray into this fandom, and I hope I can do it justice. Enjoy. :)_


	2. In the Darkness

_Chapter Two – In the Darkness_

_Wharton Academy, Massachusetts – Graduation Day_

Alan Tracy fidgeted nervously and adjusted his cap for the twentieth time in as many minutes.

He thought that he would never live to see the day, but here he was, ready to walk the aisle and be handed his diploma by the headmaster of Wharton Academy. The accomplishment would cap off a furious trek of months studying and training, both in his studies and with certain aspects of International Rescue.

Oh there were the moments of fun – there were summers spent in England with Lady Penelope and the winter vacations in the Alps with his father and brothers, but times he missed the most were with his friends Fermat and TinTin. Due to some advanced testing and upon recommendation of the headmaster, Fermat was given special attention and soon was able to graduate a whole year early, much to Alan's chagrin and grade point average. It took a little extra work and a few study sessions with Fermat via Vidphone, but Alan was set to graduate with a 3.5 GPA and the kudos of many of his teachers.

He couldn't begrudge TinTin, however. After the events of that spring break so many years ago, she grew closer with her family. Alan got to see her on occasion during spring and summer breaks, and he was going to see her later on this summer as well.

So much had changed. Even his brothers were laying off calling him sprout – well most of the time at any rate. Dad had also kept his word, and had been showing him things about the organization that he had dreamed so much about- International Rescue.

Alan did his best, and learned all of the machine's stats inside and out. He even knew each of the individual machines that Thunderbird Two could haul around at a moment's notice. Along with that, he made use of specially made simulators that Brains had concocted, and had thus virtually driven every Thunderbird available. If that wasn't dedication, he didn't know what was.

As much as Alan looked forward to being part of the family organization, he did pick up one side hobby. A couple of the other boys in his math class told him about a physics teacher that raced professionally during the summertime at a race track a few miles away. The teacher was looking for interns for the summer, and there was the distinct possibility that any one of the interns could be made a backup driver for his team. The teacher had done it before, they had said.

Alan had kept up with the local racing circuit after that, and got to know each of the drivers and the cars they drove. It wasn't anything on scale with the professional races he had watched voraciously growing up, but ff he could just become one of them, speeding past his opponents, the wind in his hair, making split second decisions that would mean the difference between first and second place, Alan wanted all of that.

The problem? He hadn't run it by his dad yet. Judging by Alan's previous conversations with his father, it looked like that he was expecting Alan to come spend summer learning more about the 'family business' – _as if there was anymore to remember_, he thought bitterly. Any more information and he thought he would explode.

"Alan Tracy."

The headmaster had called his name – it was now time to get the rest of his life underway. He stood from his seat and headed to the main aisle to make the long walk to the front for his diploma.

As Alan walked down the main aisle towards the front, he looked to the throng of parents and well wishers and noticed that his father had made it, along with Fermat. There were sitting near the front row and they both waved eagerly at him.

Alan marveled at how his friend had changed in just a few short years. Gone were the spectacles, replaced by contact lenses, and with all of the presentations he was doing in college, he had managed to work on his stutter, which was only prevalent during stressful situations. They had remained close friends throughout, despite Fermat's accelerated trek to college.

The headmaster's annoyed tone broke through his reverie. "Mister Tracy, if we could hurry this along please?"

Blushing, Alan stepped up the pace. The quicker he could get his diploma, the quicker that he could get along with the rest of his life.

--

_Crown Detention Facility, London_

In a remote corner of London, a non-descript white bricked building stood gleaming against a strong evening sun. Built in a run down area, no one who was smart would set foot even close to the area for fear of robbery or attack.

Dr. Arianna Majors maneuvered her car down the narrow strip of road leading to the building, and then turned into the driveway. After maneuvering to the back of the building where the other cars were, she managed a quick parking job and shut off her car. After pinning back her long auburn hair with a hairclip, she grabbed her nametag from the seat beside her and then hurried out of the car.

She had been working for the government for close to a year, and in that time, she still had trouble getting used to being surrounded by enough secrets to make even James Bond blush. Smoothing out the wrinkles and creases in her mauve blouse and black slacks, Arianna clipped her nametag at her waist and proceeded through the small checkpoint at the edge of the building.

The guard that was stationed there had buzzed her through many a time, and judging by his portly stance, had seen a lot of action with the homemade lunches that he brought from home. "Heya Ari, how's life treating ya?"

She smiled as she held out her tag in front of the scanner stationed in front of the guard. "Not too bad if you don't mind cold cuts for dinner, Dennis, what's your secret?"

Laughing, Dennis patted one hand on his belly. "Blame it on a wife with enough recipes to probably put most chefs out of work." He looked down at the readout. "You're clear, as usual. Have a good day."

A buzzer sounded, and then Arianna stepped through the nearby doorway.

She stepped from the world she knew into one of the most cold and sterile environments that she had ever been in. The hallways she walked through were stark white, with very little in the way of decoration. Only the occasional light or strategically placed potted plant told that there were people occupying the building. Doorways were spaced out sparsely along the way, and Arianna chose the last one at the end and walked right on through.

The room itself looked like a police interrogation room, if it were in a hospital, but with the décor being all white it made the whole thing looking more like an isolation ward.

There was a small table in the room, and at it sat a balding man dressed in a white lab coat, along with a simple white shirt and black trousers. He turned and acknowledged Arianna with a brief glance and a growl. "You're late."

Arianna snorted, as she grabbed a similar lab coat from a hook near the door and put it on. If Jeremy was anything, he was anal retentive about anyone being one second late. "And a hearty hello to you too, Jeremy. You know full well how evening traffic is out there."

Jeremy shook his head and turned back to the observation window. "Let's just begin, shall we?"

Arianna took a seat beside him, and grabbed for the microphone, clicking it on in the process. Her focus was the white robed prisoner sitting on bed on the other side of the glass. "Ok, Mister Belagant, let's talk."

Trangh Belagant, AKA the Hood, sat cross legged on a white bed in the middle of the room. His eyes were closed, and he concentrated on tuning out the routine annoying voices from the other side of the glass. Ever since his attempted attack on the Bank of London all of those years ago, the British government had trouble deciding hat to do with him. Based on the surveillance footage with him initially plowing his way through Jubilee Gardens and then with the initial break-in to the bank, they knew he had some sort of mind power, and wisely decided to isolate him from the rest of the population.

For the next few years, they had kept him confined to the sterile existence of the infernal white building. Every day, he slept in this room that had no privacy. Meals were passed through a metal flap in the door, and a small bathroom built into a corner offered him what little privacy he had.

He got the gist of why they brought him here – they were afraid of what he could do. They had seen his power, and in a way it amused him that the government was curious enough to study him and yet take all of these precautions. There must have been something done with the construction or the protection of the building, for he tried reaching outside the confines of his prison with his mind, only to find his mind bouncing off of a mental wall.

Ah well, his life wasn't exactly a charmed one, but he knew enough when to fight his battles, and now was not the time. The Hood knew that he would get his chance, and he knew the first thing that he would do once he got the opportunity– visit revenge on the man who had ruined his life, Jefferson Tracy.

Arianna sighed as she watched her test subject meditate the same way he had over the past few years. Whenever he was in this room, Trangh had always kept silent. She was still drawing a paycheck keeping up this routine, but she wondered when this whole charade would come to a head. The only thing that worried her was what would bring this to a head.

Little did Arianna know that she didn't have long to wait.

Dennis sat at his checkpoint happily, eating the latest that his erstwhile wife had cooked him for a late meal – steaming spinach soup in a thermos, along with three huge slices of her homemade bread. Life was indeed good. The sun had set not too long ago, and He had a small radio he had smuggled into his small workspace tuned into some evening classic pop music program, and soon strains of 2000's tunes wafted throughout the area. Dennis remembered fondly dancing to those same tunes at school dances with his sweetheart and-

It was then a loud whine started to drown out the music. Dennis didn't think too much about it at first, but when the whine increased in pitch, he shifted himself off of his seat and chanced a look at the night sky and the area around him, barely illuminated by the five light poles dispersed throughout the parking lot.

Nothing was there. Not a sign of movement at all.

He made a move to settle back into his chair when he felt a large rumble, and the ground shaking beneath his feet. Dennis tried to reason out what was happening. "Can't be, there's no such thing as earthquakes - not in London."

But as much as he wanted to not believe it, the rumbling continued - then the world around Dennis exploded.

Explosions rocked the tiny building, the force of which threw both Arianna and Jeremy to the floor. Coughing, Arianna stood up and looked at the huge gaping hole in the hallway that was letting in the darkness from the outside world.

Smoke and dust billowed out from where the rubble settled and in the cloud she could just make out a squadron of military men, through the uniforms were nothing like what she could recognize.

Looking over at her coworker, Arianna's heart lurched when she realized that the falling rubble had fallen upon Jeremy and killed him upon impact. She shook her head in disbelief and shock. _Well, I was wondering when things would come to a head, but I didn't think it would be like this._

The group of five men walked towards her slowly and deliberately, and as they got closer, Arianna realized that they were all wearing gas masks and carrying rifles. As the group stopped a few feet in front of the amazed woman, one of them stepped closer to her.

His outfit seemed different than the other soldiers. Where all of them were wearing gray jumpsuits, his was fringed by gold trim, and on the front right side of his chest, there was a patch with a design that she could not recognize. Since he was the only one dressed in that manner, Arianna assumed that he must be the leader of the group.

After precious seconds of silence, Arianna stumbled to her feet and finally found the courage to speak. "How dare you invade a British Government facility? What do you want here?"

Her voice sounded like it had come out of a deep freeze, and truth be told she had counted herself lucky that she wasn't hurt any worse than the bruises that she could feel forming on her arms and back. Judging by the group's interest though, it would probably be a miracle if she survived this encounter.

"We would like Trangh Belagant brought to us this instant."

The tone that the leader of the group had used had not seemed harsh at all, and yet the weapons that his group held pointed at her belied any civility the statement may have contained.

Arianna shook her head slowly at the request. Her orders were to study the Hood only and find out what made him tick. Her superiors had been afraid of him from the start, concerned that if he were put in a prison population, that the man could have an easy population of people to influence. To unleash him on an unsuspecting world – still, she found that there was little choice. Judging by the lack of response by security to this break-in, either their forces had been incapacitated, or worse.

She stepped forward, forcing a smile on her face, and tried to keep her steps as steady as possible. Motioning to the room the Hood was in, Arianna sneered. "You want him? Then by all means, break in and take him. That room is reinforced and secured by two electronic locks and bulletproof glass. Judging by the way your group has tore through this building, the guards that can normally open these doors are probably dead."

The one in charge turned to one of his men, and made a weird signal with the motion of his hand. Nodding, the man quickly ducked out of the room and soon returned with what looked like a small black box that suspiciously looked like a transmitter.

The leader then turned back to Arianna and spoke. "Your government is not the only one who has gadgets, Dr. Majors."

With a flourish of his hand, the leader extended a small antenna from the box and aimed it at the door. With a flip of the switch, a ringing type sound emanated from the machine, and seconds later the locks that were on the doors gaze way with an electrical sizzle.

The Hood, true to form, opened his eyes at the unexpected intrusion, and then reluctantly smiled as he realized who had opened the door. He had thought he had seen the last of these people that had recruited him so long ago, but maybe this was one opportunity that he shouldn't begrudge. If it got him closer to his goal of revenge, so be it.

So, for the first time since he had been incarcerated years ago, the Hood finally spoke. "It took you long enough."


	3. Anything but Ordinary

_Chapter 3 – Anything But Ordinary_

_Crown Detention Facility, London_

The leader made no move to indicate that he had heard the Hood. Instead, he stepped into the now damaged doorway of the cell and motioned out the way that his group had come in.

The Hood nodded once, and then got to his feet. "Very well then, it will be good to see General X again. Lead the way."

Turning, they exited his cell and walked back to join the main group. They turned to go when the Hood held up one hand. "A moment if you please, gentlemen."

As they paused, the Hood walked over to where Arianna stood. "You know, of all of the people that came in here blathering at me to reveal my life, you were the most beautiful. You could come with me you know. I could truly show you what makes me tick."

Arianna's training as a psychologist and criminal profiler kicked in. Part of her wanted to acquiesce to his request and come with him and - oh God her mind did a mental retch as she realized that those thoughts were not her own. Whatever protections the lockup had against the Hood's power were gone now. She forced herself to back away.

The Hood chuckled. "I'm either weak from my stay, or you have a strong mind. No matter." He held out a hand and slowly caressed her cheek, making her flinch. "If you will do me the honor of finding a radio transmitter and tuning it to any channel you like. After all, they will be listening."

At her obvious confusion, he laughed. "Ah, but I have yet to tell you who I want you to contact – that would be International Rescue, the Thunderbirds, whatever you want to call them. They monitor all communications, and will be sure to listen out for someone in distress."

"And what am I supposed to say? A madman has escaped and to catch you if they can?" she retorted.

The Hood retaliated against her statement with a mental backlash that sent her sprawling to the floor with a groan. Afterwards, he got on his knees down to her level. "Actually I have a very specific message. If you agree to deliver it, you will be allowed to live. So what do you say, Doctor Majors?"

John Tracy leaned back in his chair from his communication post in Thunderbird 5, and sighed. Times had recently grown all too routine. It was getting to be the same – an hourly check of the systems, a cross check of the news reports from around the world, and then a call home to Tracy Island. Only on rare occasions would he get a call that would send International Rescue into operation. The last big rescue operation had been when space debris had hit the International Space Station. It had taken the whole family including Alan and Fermat monitoring from below to rescue the astronauts and help them affect the necessary repairs, but that had been near the beginning of his recent rotation.

Beggars couldn't be choosers, but John swore that if it weren't for the three month rotation, he could very well drift off from boredom. At the very least, the rescue of the car passengers from the canyon had been a good workout of their skills. Well, maybe he could get his mind off things by working on the Astronomy article that he was writing and-

A squawk from a nearby communications console roused him from his thoughts, and John got out of his seat to check it out. The state of the art computers were set to scan all possible communications channels for the words 'International Rescue' or 'Thunderbirds.'

_So, someone is talking about us. Let's see who it is._

John let his hands drift over the controls of the communication board, making the necessary adjustments until he brought the transmission that he wanted to filter through.

It had been a weak radio transmission, which seemed archaic at best, considering the technology of the day. John tweaked the controls as he struggled to get the static to clear from the transmission. Finally he could make out the plea for help. "Calling International Rescue. This is Dr. Arianna Majors of the Crown detention Facility calling International Rescue, come in please!"

Crown Detention Facility? His senses went on high alert when he realized who was calling. John quickly hit a switch on his panel and spoke. "Crown Detention Facility, this is International Rescue. We read you loud and clear. What is happening?"

He could almost hear an audible sigh come over the line. "Thank God I have finally reached you. There is major trouble going on here. A military extremist group of some kind has broken the Hood out of jail."

As John listened to her explanation of what had occurred, he grew paler by the moment. What had just happened meant that the world and International Rescue were both in jeopardy. As he signed off with the promise of getting in touch again, John turned to make the necessary call to authorities to go help out the victims of the attack on the facility.

Once that was done, he turned to make the call he had been dreading. It had been years since they had faced the Hood, and his father would probably give him a lecture for keeping such an obsessive track of where the British government was keeping a madman like that, but now that madman was loose- and with help no less.

John turned back and sat back down in his chair in front of his main communication console. His father would no doubt be at Alan's graduation ceremony, John thought grimly as he made the connection.

"Thunderbird Five to Tracy Island, come in. Emergency."

At Wharton Academy, decorum and ceremony were over. Alan Tracy clutched at his diploma like a prize, and was more than ready to shed the cap and gown the ceremony had dictated. Looking around, he could see his father Jeff Tracy making his way through the throngs of happy students and parents celebrating the life change, and he waved to him. "Dad, over here!"

Jefferson Tracy was proud of this moment. He had initially been concerned when his son had a one track mind so long ago when he wanted to become a member of International Rescue. It had taken near tragedy to show all of them that Alan did have what it took to become a member of International Rescue, and in the following years, he had shown his son quite a few aspects of the operations of IR. Alan could feasibly come back home to the island tomorrow and be able to man almost any ship that he wanted to.

But it was summertime in Massachusetts, and Jeff wanted his son to enjoy a well earned summer vacation. He figured it was only fair, and each of his sons had been given the opportunity and the privilege when it came time for them. Jeff smiled inwardly though – he had a pretty good idea of what Alan was going to choose.

Alan ran up to his dad and wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug. "I did dad, I finally graduated. No more headmasters, no more report cards-"

Jeff laughed and groaned as he disentangled himself. "Leave it to you to find the benefits of this all. I am very proud of you Alan. You have worked hard and proven yourself."

Alan smiled. He thought of the opportunity that lied ahead for him, but suddenly he was reluctant to speak up. Would his dad appreciate his need to go out and find his niche in life?

He had finally decided to say something when his dad decided to beat him to the punch.

"Alan, listen. You have a whole summer ahead of you and umm-"

Alan took a breath – well, he better get it out now for his sake "Dad, about that-"

Their thoughts collided and they both came out with what they wanted to say.

"I think I need some time off-"

"I think you need to take a vacation-"

They both stopped as they realized what each other had said.

Laughing, Jeff put a hand on his son's shoulder. "Well it seems that we both have the same idea. There is plenty of time to be thinking of college and all, and International Rescue can wait a little while for its newest recruit. I want you to be able to enjoy the summer, because once you are ready, there's a lot of work to be done."

Alan's emotions ran high as he realized what his father had said, but at the same time he groaned. "I had a feeling you were going to say that. I actually had something in mind. Where's Fermat? Maybe we can discuss it over an early dinner?"

"Dinner sounds like a good idea son. Let's go-"

Jeff was ready to turn towards his car when his cell phone trilled from its resting place in his vest pocket. He quickly grabbed it out of his pocket, and grimaced when he checked the caller ID. It was the secure IR line, only to be used in emergency. "Ah, talk about bad timing. Let me take this real quick."

He pressed a button on his phone, and quickly spoke into it. "I'm here."

Alan watched as his father's face went through a myriad of emotions while acknowledging the conversation. "What? When? I see. Contact Lady Penelope and make sure that she assesses the site and makes contact with the person who contacted us to see what they know. Put Gordon, Virgil, and Scott on alert and let them know that they may be called upon by Lady Penelope for assistance. Okay, I'll leave here as soon as I can. Take care, John."

No doubt about it, something was up. As Alan watched his father put his phone back into his pocket, he could swear that lines of worry were starting to crease his father's features.

"Is everything ok, dad?"

Jeff gave him an uneasy look. "Fermat is waiting on us back at my car. Let's go eat that early dinner and I will tell you all about it."

--

In the darkness, FAB-1 had pulled into the parking lot of what had been the Crown Detention facility. Aloysius Parker, Lady Penelope's right hand man, was driving and at the same time fighting to stifle a yawn. They rarely received calls in the evenings save for the occasion formal situation, so when Lady Penelope had summoned him to the garage this night, he wondered what the fuss had been all about.

Lady Penelope's exclamation summed it up best when they got a full view of the destruction. "My God."

Indeed, save for the opposite walls of the building, the entire middle part of the facility was gutted. Rescue vehicles were scattered about the scene, and judging by the cordoned off area to the side, there were apparently numerous casualties being checked out by various doctors. Parker was at a loss. "What could have done this, milady?"

Being an agent of International Rescue, Lady Penelope had knowledge of various extremists groups working around the world due to their tendency of causing many incidents of destruction. The strange thing was that there had been no talk of anything on this scale from any of her sources. "I wish I knew, Parker. The first I heard of this was John's call to us tonight. There are scorch marks and blaster marks all over the place from what I can make out, but this rubble seems to be hampering rescue efforts. We need the boys here, and fast."

From her vantage point in the back seat, Lady Penelope pressed a button on the back of the seat facing her. In response, a small square panel hissed open on the back of the seat, revealing a computer touch panel. She touched the communication option and spoke quickly. "Lady Penelope to Tracy Island, come in please."

Moments later, a familiar face appeared on her screen. "Tracy Island receiving you. Dad told us to expect your call – how bad is it?"

She took a long breath before answering. "It's pretty bad, Scott. The entire middle of the building is gone, and judging by the rescue efforts, the workers are being hampered by all of the rubble. I am going to go check out the area and try to find the person who called us, but you better have Virgil and Gordon come straightaway with Thunderbird 2 and bring the mole with them."

"FAB Lady Penelope, I'll let them know."

Scott's image disappeared from her screen, and Penelope pressed a button again to close the panel. Looking back over the remains of the complex, she knew they had their work cut out for them. "Parker, get us as close as you can. I want to talk to the rescue officials."

--

In a seafood restaurant not far from the school, Alan sat between his father and his friend Fermat. They had ordered a large platter of crab legs, and soon they were about halfway through their meal.

"I-I would like to thank you, Mr. Tracy," Fermat smiled as he dabbed at his mouth with a napkin. "This w-was a good meal."

Alan laid his utensils down. Despite his intentions, he had one other thought on his mind. "Okay dad, now will you tell me what has been bothering you all afternoon?"

Jeff sighed as he looked at the two boys-no, teens surrounding him. They grow up so fast, and they did have a right to know. After all, they did have a big hand in getting the Hood captured. "You're right, Alan. Earlier today, the Hood escaped from the detention facility he was in."

Alan was shocked. "What? How?"

His father put a finger to his lips. "Shh, quiet down. There was a military type group that attacked the facility and got him out. John is still checking his sources, and I have Lady Penelope checking as well, but they were quick, efficient, and they knew what they wanted. The Hood is the only person or thing missing from the facility."

Alan began to push away the proposal of a fun filled summer. "Dad, if you need me to come back to the island right away-"

Jeff shook his head and smiled. "No son, this is your time, and besides, it is early in the investigation. I wouldn't be fair if I didn't give you the same chance your brothers were given. Besides, judging by your behavior this afternoon, you sound like you already have a plan in the works. Would you care to fill me in on what it is?"

Alan looked at his friend excitedly before turning back to his father. For the first time in a while, he truly felt like they were on the same wavelength. Smiling, he dove in and made his pitch.

"Well, since Fermat is attending college not too far from here on a scholarship, I have been scouting around and have found a raceway only twenty miles from here that has race crews that need interns. Some of them even allow the interns to become backup drivers! What do you think?"

Jeff grinned. The only other thing that Alan had ever expressed an interest in other than International Rescue was racing. There had been many a time that when he was home on break that he would find Alan glue to the television, watching one race or another. The one thing that Jeff realized was that even with his youngest son, there was still a lot to learning to do. Alan had proved himself that one spring break when the Hood nearly destroyed them, all in the name of stealing the wealth of the world banks. As a result, Alan had performed many training scenarios over the past few years, and Jeff was satisfied that his youngest was on the right track, though he couldn't help but be a little anxious about this current 'track' his son wanted to explore.

He put a hand on Alan's shoulder. "That's great son. Do you have any contacts there? Maybe I can help-"

Alan held up his hand. "In this case dad, I did my homework, so it's all cool. Mister Evans, one of the Physics teachers at the academy, moonlights as a driver during the summer season, and has need of an intern on his crew. I have talked with him at length as to what would be involved, and he said as long as I get your permission, I am in."

"Smart man," Jeff replied, "well, I don't see why not. You have been interested in racing since you have been old enough to watch it on television. I only have two questions though, how soon will they need you to report there, and where are you going to stay?"

Fermat chose to speak at that point. "Well, Mr. Tracy, as part of the college s-scholarship I obtained, the school has provided an apartment near campus, and there is enough room there for a roommate."

"It's secure, key card access only, and the place is monitored by advisors on each floor, dad, so it will be safe." Alan added, "So what do you think?"

Jeff laughed at the obvious double-teaming that the both of them were doing. "It sounds safe enough, but Fermat, I don't suppose you have run this by your father yet?"

"A-actually Mr. Tracy, I talked to him about it this morning before I came to see the graduation ceremony. He said as long as it was okay with you-"

This time Jeff held his hands up in surrender. He had to hand it to Alan to be passionate enough about a plan like this. "OK, ok, I get it, the way I see it, as long as I get to talk to Mr. Evans and you two are safe and secure, that is the main thing I am concerned with."

"Actually, Mr. Evans should still be at school prepping his things to head off campus, dad," Alan piped up. "He doesn't teach during the summer term, so he usually packs up his stuff and races full time during the summer."

"Then let's go see Mr. Evans then," Jeff declared as he signed for the check for their meal that their server brought over. "If you are going to be spending the summer working around him and his equipment, I want to know what type of man he is."

--

Michael Evans was a man determined. Another school term was over at the school at least, so it was another round of packing up his reference materials and important papers so that he could race for the summer. He was ready to finish packing the last of his things when the opening lines of Beethoven's fifth symphony came through his cell phone on the nearby table.

It couldn't be...after all of this time. That was the tone that he had assigned to certain types of text messages when they came through, and that could mean only one thing. Michael dove for his cell phone and checked for text messages.

There had only been one, and its intent was clear. ACTIVATE. KEEP TABS ON ALAN TRACY AND REPORT.

It had been close to a month since he had been approached by the group. He didn't even know the name of their group, and barely could recognize anything memorable about the operative that made contact with him, but the promise was clear - the promise of money and power. For a man eeking out a living and racing second hand cars in the summer, visions of Porsches and Maseratis racing down European streets was a temptation too great to ignore. Smiling, he placed the cell phone back into his pocket and grabbed for the last of his papers. The only thing now was to figure out how to pull off the request made of him.

A knock on the door interrupted his thinking, and he dropped the papers in a fit of nervousness. "Come in!"

* * *

_You never know where you are going to find an enemy. See you next time._


	4. Headstrong

_Chapter 4 – Headstrong_

Looking towards the door, Michael watched as in some amazement the target of his text message walked through the door, followed by an older man that he recognized as Jefferson Tracy.

Smoothing a hand through his short brown hair, he wondered what kind of luck would bring things together so quickly for him. "Ah, Mister Tracy and Mister Tracy. What can I do for you?"

Alan stepped towards him with a big smile on his face. "I was just telling my dad about how you race cars in the summertime, and that your crew was looking for interns."

This was too perfect. There would be no better way to keep an eye on his target than having him work for his crew, but he could not make this too easy. "Alan, I appreciate your enthusiasm, and yes, I am looking for extra help, but I work my interns hard. We have two old cars that have to be kept in tip top racing shape. That means they need to be cleaned, serviced, and in perfect running order whenever we need them."

Alan smiled once again, and then looked to his father. "I think I can step up for you. I've grown up around one type of engine or another, and have been able to keep them in tip top shape. You can ask my dad."

Jeff cleared his throat as he realized that Alan was asking for his endorsement. "Umm, yes, Alan is familiar around engines, and is interest in racing is something that he has had since he was young."

Michael stepped back and regarded Alan Tracy. There wasn't much else he could bring up, so now came time for a decision. Yes, this would work out perfectly. "OK Alan, the summer racing season starts in a week and a half. Do you know where the raceway is?"

An energetic nod greeted his question, and that sealed the deal. He looked toward Alan's father. There had to be no questions on this matter. "Mister Tracy, did you have any other questions for me?"

Jeff shook his head. From what he could tell, this teacher seemed to be ok. Oh, he would do an extra background check when he returned home, but from what he could see, the teacher seemed devoted to his sport. Mr. Evans had dressed in a simple pair of blue jeans, and a green t-shirt that proudly proclaimed "Edwards Racing".

Jeff offered a hand to him. "Mister Edwards, I appreciate you letting us speak with you before you go to race."

"The pleasure is all mine, Mister Tracy," Mr. Edwards replied, "As a physics teacher, I have followed your career as an astronaut with much interest. The missions that you got to go on helped advance our space research and development far beyond anything we could have ever hoped for."

"You flatter me," Jeff laughed. "So when does my son have to report to your crew?"

Mr. Edwards turned to face Alan. "I could use you in a week. By then I will have my other three interns notified and we can go over normal routine so we will be ready for race time. Does this meet with your needs, young Mister Tracy?"

His father nearly laughed at the energetic look on his son's face. So he knew now for sure what Alan would be doing for the summer. He only wished that he knew what he would find once he returned to Tracy Island.

As he walked back down the hallway towards the elevators, a thought came to him and he quickly grabbed his phone out of his pocket. The number was on his speed dial, but he would have known the international number by heart even if he had to dial it.

"Dad, who are you calling?"

He turned to his son who had fallen into step behind him. "I just want to check on Lady Penelope's progress, Alan. Why don't you head over to the dorms and pack the last of your things? I will catch up with you shortly."

Alan smiled. "FAB, dad."

* * *

Lady Penelope had finished talking to the fire captain on scene, when she saw that Thunderbird Two had glided into the area and was trying to find a place to land. The loud whine of the engines reverberated throughout the area.

That was when unfortunately her cell phone chose to ring. Cursing the timing, Penelope ducked into a nearby tent where the rescue workers were coordinating their efforts. Taking her cell phone out of her pocket and checking the caller ID, she smiled and flipped her phone open to answer it. "You are supposed to be enjoying your son's graduation day."

"Well, the day is pretty much over here, Penelope," Jeff replied to her, "but your night there is probably far from over. How are things?"

She shook her head - where to begin? "Jeff, this place has been truly ravaged. Whatever this group was, they had enough firepower to take on a small army. These people never stood a chance. Our contact is being treated right now for some minor injuries, so I will be able to talk to her in a few, and Thunderbird Two has just landed."

Jeff's voice came though hard yet concerned. "Penny, they used that much firepower to get the Hood out? What possible use could they have for him?"

"That's what we are here to find out," she replied decisively. Just then, Parker ducked into the tent and motioned to her. "Jeff, hold on for a moment, Parker has some information for me."

"Our contact has been released by the medical authorities, milady," Parker imparted once he knew that he had her attention. "If we want to interview her, we best hurry."

"Right," Penelope replied, then turned back to her other conversation. "I have to go. Hopefully we will soon have the answers you are looking for, Jeff."

"Take care, and let me know what you find out."

"As always," Penelope replied. She quickly closed her cell phone and returned it to her pants pocket. She turned to Parker. "Lead the way."

Virgil and Gordon sat quietly at the controls of Thunderbird 2 and surveyed the scene before them. They had a better view of what had happened once they had landed, and what they had seen didn't look good at all.

Gordon was the one who finally spoke up. "You seeing what I am seeing, Virgil?"

Virgil reluctantly nodded. "If you mean the scorch and powder marks on the outside walls of the building, then yeah, I am. You think this is the reason why Lady Penelope was so on edge when she was talking with Scott?"

Gordon remained silent, which caused Virgil to look over at him. "OK, spill it. I know that look. You haven't been this silent since you were stood up at that school dance by your girlfriend at the time – Muffy I think it was?"

"It was Buffy, and I wasn't stood up! I just – knew we needed to see other people!" Gordon retorted. When Virgil wouldn't look away, he finally relented. "Okay, but you have to promise not to tell dad."

When Virgil crossed his arms and continued to stare at Gordon, he sighed. "Ok,Virg, ok. I guess we have gotten way past that point. Lady Penelope is not the only one overly concerned about the Hood. During my last rotation to Thunderbird Five, I found some things to indicate that John has been obsessing over the Hood."

"What?" Virgil couldn't believe what he was hearing. Even their father had stopped his monthly calls to the British Government over six months ago. "What kind of information did you find?"

"He had information about the Hood's movements before his attempt to rob the world's banks." Gordon replied. "John even had recordings that indicated that the Hood was initially affiliated with a rogue military organization bent on world domination."

Virgil scoffed. "That's crazy. Even if that was that's true, why would they just now come break him out?"

Gordon looked out at the scene of destruction. "I don't know. You tell me, brother."

Virgil turned to the onboard computer. "I'm going to try and tap into the facility's computer system and see if we can get any security footage that Brains or John can analyze. The more we know about this group that we are up against, the better."

--

Lady Penelope followed Parker out of the tent and along a pre-set path that the rescue teams had made off to the side of the building. They soon arrived in an area set up for triage, and under the power of torch light, saw that many people were still receiving some form of medical treatment.

Parker led her to an area near the back, and soon they came upon a woman with disheveled hair and torn lab coat. Lady Penelope felt for the woman – the bruises around her face were evident, and a large bandage covered a portion of her forehead. The woman was obviously tense, pacing back and forth in the area.

Parker cleared his throat. "Milady, may I present Dr. Arianna Majors."

Penelope extended her hand to the woman. "I am with International Rescue. You called us about the group that attacked your installation?"

Arianna returned the gesture, grabbing her hand and giving it a firm shake. "Your organization surprises me. I talk to a man, who says he is sending help, and now I am talking to someone who looks more prepared for a magazine cover than field work."

Lady Penelope gave her a coy smile. She had left out of her mansion that evening wearing a simple pink pantsuit made out of a breathable yet durable material Brains had a hand in developing. It looked fashionable, but allowed her to move quickly when called upon. "Looks can be deceiving, as you may well know. You were one of the people studying the Hood?"

Arianna frowned. "I am a psychologist and a profiler. I was employed freelance by the British government to try and see what made Trangh Belagant AKA the Hood tick as it were. He was one of the more interesting cases I had ever encountered, for he had not spoken a word to anyone before tonight."

This fascinated Penelope. "And what was your diagnosis, Doctor?"

Arianna leveled a gaze at her. "How could I make a proper diagnosis? What do you want me to say, that he was a sociopath bent on dominating the world? Well, I can tell you one thing at least – he was surprised to see that group there. I could see it in his eyes. He recognized them, and yet Trangh wasn't exactly happy to see them either."

* * *

Back on Tracy Island, Brains sat in a chair in front of the command and control center. It had been only a few hours since they had returned from the car rescue that they had received the call from Lady Penelope about the escape, and this time Brains opted to stay on the island and monitor the situation. On the main video monitor, he was carefully cycling through the security footage Virgil and Gordon had obtained from the detention facility. There really was not that much to see, considering that it was sundown when the facility was attacked. Using enhancing software, Brains could just make out two small tanks along with some ground troops, and each looked like they were equipped with some type of heat or laser technology. Even with the software help, the distinction was hard to make.

He sat back in his chair and sighed, almost wishing that he was with Fermat right now celebrating Alan's graduation.

Fermat had grown up so fast these past few years, and his scientific knowledge helped him to go ahead and advance to a college almost a year earlier than expected. He would have to make a point to visit his son at his apartment sometime soon, especially since Alan was getting set to join him for the summer.

A distinct beeping came through one of the side monitors, and then a familiar hail. "Thunderbird 5 to Brains, come in."

Brains pressed a button to pause the security footage, and then acknowledged John's transmission. 'T-thunderbird 5 this is Brains. Go ahead John."

John's image quickly came into view on the second screen. Brains noticed that he seemed tired, and wondered what was going through his mind.

"Brains, I wondered if you had the chance to review the footage that Virgil and Gordon sent."

He nodded. "Yes, and s-so did S-Scott. He is agreeing w-with your assessment. It looks like the Shadow Force squadron made this s-strike. T-the only thing that makes me n-nervous is what they could want with the Hood."

On the screen, John cast a look off to the side before finally muttering. "I wonder that too."

Brains thought he could hear a nervous tone to John's voice, but dismissed the notion as John simply nearing the end of his three month rotation. "S-Scott is on his way to the danger zone now. I-I'll make sure he remembers to get Gordon back here soon so that he can come and r-relieve you for his rotation."

John sighed. "I am really looking forward to that - Gordon probably not so much, especially when he finds out Alan is not coming home for the summer." He then chuckled. "Maybe I am just getting too paranoid up here. Call me when Thunderbird Three launches, will you Brains?"

The scientist smiled. "FAB."

* * *

_Many apologies. I was at parent's house for the weekend, and I didn't bring the writing to work on. :( The old saying goes - If I was organized, I would be dangerous. _

_Well, we know the name of the group that broke the Hood out of jail, and Mr. Evans has made his plans. Find out more about Shadow Force and their plans, along with Alan moving in with Fermat - all in the next chapter._

_Till later,_

_Time Guardian_


	5. Keep Holding On

Chapter 5 _– Keep Holding On_

Jeff arrived at the dormitories as the sun was sinking low in the sky.

He had made the journey more than once, and remembered when he had first brought Alan to this place. It was by some minor miracle that he managed to squeeze in the time for it, but Alan had remained distant and aloof about the whole thing.

_What a difference a few years make._

He entered the tall stone building and after checking in at the main desk, Jeff headed up the flight of stairs. His son's room was beside the stairs, and he slowly walked towards it.

The door was open, and Jeff could see that the room was bare save for the desks and beds that were there originally at the start of the term. Alan was standing at the foot of his bed, loading a duffel bag full of clothes.

Knocking on the doorframe, Jeff smiled as his son turned around. Alan was growing taller by the day, and was almost eye to eye with him already.

He cleared his throat. "Alan, are you ready to go?"

Alan stood in place for a second before finally replying. "Yeah, sure dad. I have my clothes packed and ready for the over to Fermat's place. How are things at the danger zone?"

Smiling, Jeff ran a hand through his hair. "Now there's nothing there for you to worry about. Shouldn't you be focusing on how you are going to impress Mr. Edwards when you meet up with him again?"

Alan groaned. "Don't remind me. I have to study up on some race videos I have to get an idea of Mr. Edward's cars and get ideas on how to make them run faster and then-"

Laughing, Jeff smiled wanly as he was definitely feeling his age. Kids grow up so fast, and Alan was the last one to strike out on his own. Well, he would make sure that his son gets an evening that he would never forget.

"C'mon Alan. The room I have at the Hotel has an extra bed. How about your old man buys you dinner and we spend one last night together?"

--

In the depths of the South Pacific Ocean, a large plateau of rock sat on an undersea shelf. It had been quite large and stable when General X had staked it out as a potential location for a base. It took months of planning and the occasional attack on ships that got too close to their operations, but after a year their undersea base of operations had been finally completed.

Three large clear domes sat on the rock all lined up in a row. Made of a high density plastic polymer, the domes allowed their base to remain underwater, away from the detection from traffic in the sea or in the air. In each dome the General also ensured that each phase of his operations had a place to work. From the area that developed new weapons for the group to a holding area where they could keep any prisoners they acquired, he made sure his group was not without anything crucial to their success.

The last dome was established a docking area for submarines via a tube and airlock, and it was there that General X awaited the return of his group that had been sent to retrieve the Hood.

A formidable man, General X had honed his body to the point where he had become incredibly strong, and his deeply tanned skin spoke of the many manuevers and battles he fought under the sun. A firm believer of survival of the fittest, he could easily take on five men his size and not break a sweat, and it was for this reason that he led the men and they followed his orders without question.

Dressed in his dark grey uniform, General X slowly paced back and forth in front of the airlock as he watched a large black submarine manuver around in the water until it was alongside the dome. Moments later, there was a hiss of air and a clank as the submarine made contact with the dome, coming alongside until it stopped in front of the airlock.

Minutes later the airlock opened, and the contingent of his troops that he had sent to the task filed out. At the end of the line was the leader of the operation followed by the object of their operation - Trangh Belagant.

Initially General X had recruited him years ago when there had been a deadly accident at an illegal diamond mine in Malaysia. He found Trangh in his village recovering from injuries sustained after a cave in and very bitter. His brother Kyrano had been rescued along with other villagers that had been working in the mines. Trangh was the last to be helped, but when the villagers had told their stories, including Kyrano himself, the village had shunned him, allowing the authorities to come in and pick him up for what amounted to murder.

The mental backlash that Trangh was able to unleash that day on his captors impressed General X, and was he able to convince Trangh that his services would be well placed carrying through plans for world domination. General X decided to test his new recruit's skill, so he provided him money and his choice of recruits to try and pull off whatever plan he so desired.

That was when he was captured by the Thunderbirds and imprisoned by the British authorities. General X was tempted to leave him in the British prison system to rot, but his current plan called for mind control, so he was in need of the Hood's services, despite how arrogant the man could be. By all rights, the one mission the Hood tried on his own was an unmitigated failure, so he would be keeping a close eye on him.

The Hood glared at his would be rescuer and seethed. For years after he had been first recruited, he sought any opportunity to break off on his own to follow his own plans, the first of which was to repay the one man that he blamed for the start of this whole mess - Jeff Tracy. He had come so close to success when he used the General's resources to try and rob the world banks. His choice of the General's rescruits, Mullion and Transom, they had come in handy as well, but in the end, it still was not enough.

The Hood then decided to bide his time - good things come to those who wait, and his next plan would have to be perfect. Perfection after all took time, but that was before his impromptu breakout from prison.

Well, if he had to make the best of it, so be it.

The Hood reached out with his mind to see if anything in this environment could be manipulated, and that was where he met resistance. Where he could normally reach out with his mind and find almost anyone, it had felt like a wet blanket had been wrapped around him.

Turning around, he glared at the General, who by this time was laughing at his apparent discomfort. "I remember your power, Hood. This entire base is surrounded by a dampening field, and I have guards monitoring every exit. I need your help, but I will keep an eye on you. Never forget that, and you may live."

The arrogance of the man! The Hood tamped down his anger at the thought of trading one prison for another. "I assume it is for something important, otherwise you wouldn't have brought me all of the way down here."

After ordering the rest of his men to disperse, General X motioned to the Hood. "Follow me."

The Hood walked a few feet behind him and observed as the General led him through numerous corridors first through one dome and then another before finally coming to a stop in front of a large room.

He watched as in some amusement as the general pressed a button beside the door, and in response the door slid open.

It was some kind of control room. That much the Hood could tell. The room was big enough for twenty people, but along each wall was a bank of computers and monitors, each showing views of the outside world in different areas. Every few feet along each wall, one of the General's men sat, monitoring the transmissions.

In the middle of the room was a brightly lit table. The Hood noticed that many different drawings and plans were scattered about the table. He recognized many of them as being plans of various different government buildings throughout the world, and had a feeling of what their plans were to be, but decided to play it cool for the moment. "So I assume you have a plan?"

The General walked into the room, stopping at the table with the plans. "The plan is to abduct the world leaders. They will be brought here and that is where you come in. I want you to make them impart the secrets. My Shadow Force was formed to unite the world under MY rule, and to do that, I need access to their innermost thoughts."

So that was his game. The Hood smiled - the Shadow Force of old had not really changed so much. "If you haven't noticed, you have effectively cut off my power. Do you really trust me that little? Why not allow me to take the information from wherever they are?"

General X laughed. "Do you think me that shallow? There's a little matter of ransoms and the strategic placement of my men in key positions. Oh, not to worry, you will be given an unprotected room to work in, but be forewarned - you will go with the plan as dictated, or you will find yourself dead."

The General motioned for him to follow, and then he walked out of the room. The Hood followed closely behind him as they went through a cross hallway until they stopped in front of a new door. Opening the door, the General motioned for him to go inside, adding:

"Your first meeting will be in two hours to go over the details, so don't be late."

The General then turned and left, leaving the Hood to take in his new quarters.

For an undersea base, the quarters seemed little more than the type of room he left at the detention facility. With a big bed in the middle of the room and a table with what looked like a communicator unit on it, he supposed that the General didn't want to give him any ideas beyond the plan on the table.

The Hood then tried one more exploratory search with his mind. After coming back with the same wet blanket feeling that he encountered before, he sat down on the middle of the bed cross-legged, and went into a meditative trance.

So the General would have his eye on him? Well, there was more to him than just his power. The Hood continued turning over the plan presented to him in his mind. General X may need him, but there was more than one way to twist a plan to meet his needs.

_We will see each other again sooner than you think, Jeff. Count on it._

_--_

_Apologies all around…real life tried to get the better of me. Things have stabilized now, and I am hoping to get back on a regular schedule with this fic. :) Ah well, the plans of Shadow force are now revealed, we shall see where that will take the boys – next time._


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 _– In the Darkness…_

Number 10 Downing Street was quiet for that time of morning, and for that Prime Minister Malcolm Alistair was thankful. It had been a long night, and he had spent the better part of it in his study on a video conference with the leaders from the Unites States and Japan, trying to formulate a resolution to present to their countries, supporting a unilateral environmental standard.

Judging by the arguing and bickering however, the definition of standard was going to get quite a workout. After calling a temporary truce to the efforts, Malcolm shut down his monitor and stretched motioning to his two guards that he was going to bed. "Night gents. I'll head off now, but we'll pick up again in about five hours."

They both nodded silently, which unsettled Malcolm all the more. For the past month, MI-5 insisted that his security detail be doubled due to the rumored possibility of attacks on the world's leaders. He had thought it a load of twaddle, but accepted the reinforcements without complaint since it would have taken longer to justify to them that it would cost too much and be too much of a hassle.

He walked out of his study, stretching and contemplating how long it would take for him to get to sleep.

Suddenly he felt a stinging sensation on his left shoulder. Odd, there shouldn't have been any insects inside his residence. Malcolm reached back and felt something strange.

_It was a dart_. The realization frightened him, but it was too late to do anything about it.

Seconds later he stumbled and tried to brace himself against the wall of the hallway, but it was no use. Darkness crept into the fringes of his vision, and a minute later his legs could no longer hold him. Malcolm toppled forward to the ground with an audible groan.

He was still conscious when he heard footfalls behind him. Seconds later the very same guards that he had just said good night to stood in his line of vision and picked him up.

Malcolm thought he could breathe easier, until one of them finally spoke.

"Long live Shadow Force."

* * *

After Virgil had transmitted what security images they could get their hands on to Brains, he and Gordon checked with the rescuers, who were still trying to make their way through the bulk of the rubble to get to the rest of the trapped workers. After offering up the services of the Mole, an agreement was reached, and soon Gordon had boarded the Mole and had taken it down and out of Thunderbird 2, steering for the wreckage.

For the next hour, Virgil had checked with the various medical tents set up to see if they had needed any assistance. When he received reassurances that things were well in hand, he returned to Thunderbird 2 only to find that Thunderbird 1 had landed, and Scott was getting out.

"Hey, Virgil!"

Shaking his head, he greeted his brother with a grin. "Scott, took your sweet time getting here, I see."

Scott Tracy pretended to be hurt by the statement. "Hey with dad stateside seeing Alan graduate, I had to pick up the slack somehow. Besides, I needed to make sure the morning reports were done before I headed back out. So, how bad has it been?"

Virgil looked back over the scene of destruction, and the grin that he had faded. "This building has seen better days. Gordon's helping the rescuers by clearing a way through the wreckage, and the last I heard from Lady Penelope, she was supposed to have spoken to Dr. Majors, the one who contacted us in the first place. Whatever this organization has planned, it was sure big enough for them to take this place down."

Scott turned to survey the damage and noticed that the Mole was heading back in their direction. "It looks like the authorities have this site secured. Gordon is coming back with the mole now. I need to go ahead and take him back so he can relieve John."

Virgil perked up at that. "Ah, so dad made Alan the 'summer offer'. Dare I ask what he chose as his summer activity?"

Scott grinned. "Considering all those races he watched when he was a kid? Do you even need to ask?"

Virgil smirked. "All I can say is I will let you break the news to Gordon. In the back of his mind he was hoping Alan would go ahead and jump on getting into International Rescue and spare him his rotation on Thunderbird 5. In the meanwhile though we all have to be on guard with the Hood loose."

Scott nodded. "Agreed. Even with all of the information John has on this organization that broke the Hood out, we can't go around chasing our tails. Don't look at me that way, Virgil, John told me about the information that he's gathered. At the very least if anything does happen, we will know it straight away."

"True." Virgil agreed. The Mole by this time was mere feet away. He started walking up the open ramp of Thunderbird 2. "I better start preparing, especially if I am going back alone."

* * *

Lady Penelope and Parker finally arrived home, and parked FAB-1 in its customary spot in the garage.

As they walked through the door from the garage into the main house, Penelope realized that in her haste to get to the scene of the incident, she had forgotten about her visitor, who she had hoped was asleep by this point.

Judging by the light on in the main media room, this wasn't to be. Located at the end of the hallway past the living room, Penelope normally used the room to catch a movie or watch television without anyone disturbing her.

She motioned for Parker to follow her, then walked the short distance to the doorway of the room, and saw that her guest was still quite awake. "Tin-tin, are you aware of what time it is, young lady?"

Tin-tin, dressed in pale blue pajamas and her long black hair tied back into a ponytail, was sitting in one of the overstuffed easy chairs in front of a blaring television. She had begged Lady Penelope to allow her to visit for the better part of the summer, since she claimed that it would be too quiet on the island without Alan there.

Tin-tin gave her a smile. "I wanted to wait up for you."

Penelope smiled as she regarded the young woman. Tin-tin had nearly grown a head taller since she had seen her last, when the Hood had nearly taken over Tracy Island.

"Tin-tin, you know full well that your father would not approve."

Undaunted, Tin-Tin picked up the TV remote that had been lying on the armchair. "But Lady Penelope, There's something you should see."

Quickly, Tint-Tin flipped through a few channels until she happened upon what looked like a late night news bulletin, but it was what was said that chilled Lay Penelope to the bone.

"_If you are just tuning in, we have received reports from Number 10 Downing Street this morning that indicate that the Prime Minister Alistair has been abducted. At this point it isn't clear-"_

Lady Penelope grabbed for the remote and turned off the television in shock. The Prime Minister was one of the better protected politicians in the world.

"Lady Penelope?"

She swallowed her suspicions as she looked into Tin-Tin's worried face. "Well, it looks like there is a lot of work to do, but it can wait until the morning. We all need our sleep and the fresh perspective that it will offer us. Now off with you."

As Tin-Tin reluctantly complied, Penelope turned to Parker. "You need to turn in as well. I will be in my study for a while and will have no need for you until the morning."

She turned to walk out of the room, and that was when she heard him ask. "What about you, milady?"

Turning, she smiled. "I have a few things to check with one of my contacts. Don't worry so much, Parker, I will see my own bed soon enough. Now off with you."

Parker bowed once. In all of the time that he had been in her service, he rarely questioned her intent, and he wasn't about to start now. He bid her a good night and then headed towards his own quarters.

* * *

_Shadow Force is making their presence known. Next chapter, Alan moves in with Fermat, and we get to see how far reaching Shadow Force truly is. _

_Till next time,_

_Time Guardian_


	7. Move Along

Chapter 7 _– Move Along_

The next morning, after Jeff and Alan met up with Fermat for a late breakfast, they drove to the private apartment building established only a few miles away from MIT.

The building itself was relatively new, built only two years ago and spanned five stories, its modern stone structure a contrast to the historical look that MIT itself had to offer.

They parked in a special student lot for the building, and soon Fermat led them to the front of the building, where he took out a key card from his pocket and swiped it through a reader on the front door.

As Fermat led Jeff and Alan in the main lobby, Alan couldn't help but whistle in appreciation. In addition to the carpeting and intricate marble work everywhere, he swore that he could spot at least three different top of the line security systems in place. "Wow Fermat, when you said this place was secure, you weren't kidding."

Grinning, Fermat hitched a thumb over in Jeff's direction. "You can thank your dad for that."

Alan looked at his father with a questioning glance, and Jeff laughed at the unexpected attention. "I felt obligated to give to back to future generations of engineers. Besides, I can remember how dorm life was."

After Fermat signed them all in, he guided them to an elevator where they rode to the top floor of the building. As they exited the elevator, Alan noted that it looked almost like a regular apartment complex with a long hallway flanked by numerous doors, each with their own key card reader.

They stopped at the end of the hallway in front of one of the doors. Fermat used his keycard one last time, and the door slid open. He went inside and then beckoned to them. "Come on in."

Jeff whistled in appreciation as they stepped inside. The place was spacious enough, decked out in simple wood tones and grey and red fabrics. The living room had a spacious couch and a fully stocked entertainment center with what looked like every game system currently on the market. The kitchen looked clean and spacious, with a microwave, oven, and dishwasher, along with a nook for eating and some corresponding stools.

Judging by the raucous noise down the hallway, he knew that kids would be kids, but as they stepped inside and the door closed behind them, he was impressed to find that the sound had all been muffled out. "This seems pretty private."

Fermat grinned. "I-I'll be sure to thank dad for you. When he helped me move here, he set up some equipment to help maximize privacy and security while minimizing distractions."

Jeff then turned to Alan and watched as he eagerly moved around the place with his large duffel bag in hand. He had delayed the inevitable by having Alan stay with him last night, but the time had finally come. "You have everything you need for the short term?"

Alan laughed. "Geez. Dad, for the twentieth time, yes, I have everything!" He held up the duffel bag he was carrying. "I have enough change of clothes for a few weeks, and Brains is planning on visiting Fermat in about a week anyway. He's agreed to help me get settled in with anything else I might need."

Jeff smiled. "I just want to make sure that you will be ok. Once I leave, it will be a while before I can get back to visit."

Alan sobered. The call his father had received yesterday came back to mind. If the Hood was out, things would definitely get busy for his father and brothers. "Call me if you need me."

Jeff laughed. "That's supposed to be my line! Actually, speaking of calling, I have a surprise for the two of you."

Alan watched in anticipation as his father fished out two small boxes from his pocket. Handing one to him and one to Fermat, his father stepped back with a smile. "Open them."

Opening up his box, Alan was surprised to see what looked like a small watch. It had a round face and a weird looking dial, but otherwise it digitally flashed the current time at them.

Hearing a gasp from his friend, he turned to find Fermat with a big grin on his face. "Mr. Tracy! A-are these the tele-communicators that dad was working on?"

Jeff nodded. "Brains was able to finish them early with John's help, and I've already given the others theirs. By all purposes, it looks like a normal watch, but if there is an emergency and we need to call you, or if either of you are in trouble, turn the dial of the watch and it will turn into a video communicator tuned into International Rescue frequencies."

Alan nodded. There were some benefits to being in a group of engineers and inventors. "This is cool. Thanks." And on an impulse, he wrapped his arms around his father's neck in a fierce hug. "Be careful, dad."

As his son broke his hold, Jeff replied. "Count on it. And you behave."

Fermat and Alan walked him to the door. As the door slid aside one last time, Jeff turned around, offered one last wave, and then walked out.

After Fermat closed the door, Alan breathed a heavy sigh and went back into the living area, dropping his duffel bag on the floor and settling himself onto the sofa.

Moment's later, Fermat walked in and gave him a hard look. "I-I know that sigh. What's wrong Alan?"

Alan sat back up and looked at the door that his dad had left from. "I don't know, Fermat. I am just worried I guess." He then looked around the room. "This is a pretty nice place to be set up on a scholarship with that college."

Fermat nodded and then grinned. "It'll be good to be roommates again. I appreciated the solitude for a while, but even my books on quantum theory got old fast. Y-you know, I have some pizza in the freezer and I don't have any early classes tomorrow."

Grinning, Alan followed his friend's lead. "I get your drift. Why don't we check out some movies on TV tonight and have ourselves a late night movie fest?"

* * *

Jeff flew his personal jet alone out over the open water back towards the island. He would have preferred to have made the journey with one of his sons, but it couldn't be helped. They were all growing up so fast. He smiled as he remembered leaving Alan back with Fermat. It was almost as if he was leaving him, there in preparation for another school year.

Considering the path Alan chose? In a way, it was.

He chuckled to himself at the different times of his life that he has offered the same summer opportunity to his other sons: Scott chose to be on a game show, John with his science fiction novel, Gordon with his swimming, and Virgil with his music. Each of them had unique experiences that would be memorable in more ways than one.

An hour later, as the island came into view, he saw that Thunderbird 3 had taken off into orbit. It was then that he remembered that John was due to be spelled from his three month rotation. Had that much time passed already? He rubbed a hand over his weary face. Maybe it was time that he considered handling International Rescue from behind the scenes.

Pushing all other thoughts aside, he contacted the island and requested clearance to land.

* * *

President Marilyn Winters sat in the Oval office and frowned at the official reports from London with a growing sense of dread. Running a hand through her short brown hair, the situation couldn't have been any stranger or dangerous.

Britain's Prime Minister kidnapped by persons unknown…what could be next?

She heard a knock on her door and looked up to see that her Vice President had walked into the office.

Vice President Gene Prescott had all of the hallmarks of an up and coming statesman. Dressed in a dark blue suit with a white tie, he could have easily blended in with the Secret Service. His red hair also did well to hide his age, which he had only told her, though Mary chided that forty-five was hardly old for someone in political office.

She rose briefly, and then motioned to him to take one of the overstuffed chairs in front of her own desk before she sat back down in surprise. "Gene, I wasn't expecting you today. I thought you were busy with a Senate vote."

Gene waved her off. "I have at least an hour before I need to be there. Besides, I wanted to come by when I heard that you were planning on canceling your outing to your hometown's race track in a month."

She shook her head. "Call me paranoid, but with the kidnapping of the Prime Minister still fresh in everyone's minds, I don't feel like offering myself up as the next victim."

Leaning forward, Gene gave her a sympathetic smile. "Mary, I wouldn't worry. You know full well our intel has been quiet on the US shores for the past few months. Besides, this is a reelection year - we need all of the exposure we can get. Our Secret Service along with the local authorities can have a net around you so tight, not even a gnat could get in, so if you want to go to Polonica Sands in a month, why shouldn't you?"

She looked up at his smiling face and visibly relaxed. In the four years that they had worked together, Gene had proven to be an apt and shrewd strategist, keeping an eye on world affairs and helped more than once to form alliances between countries that she had thought to be lost causes.

Her decision made, she felt better than she had when she first read the report. "You are probably right, Gene. Besides, I haven't been to a good race in a while. Thanks."

Gene nodded as he got to his feet. "It is my pleasure. Now if you will excuse me, there is a meeting of the senate that I need to get to."

She nodded, turning back to her paperwork as he left her office.

* * *

Walking down the corridor, Gene couldn't help but feel a sense of triumph. He had waited four long years for these events. His contacts had promised action for the past few months, but judging by what happened in England, plans were ready to finally move forward.

After all, he had joined Shadow Force to gain power. He would just have to make sure that when the time came, the President of the United States would disappear for good.

Then as promised by General X, the United States would be his to control.

* * *

_Evil is popping up everywhere – next chapter, John gets a ride back to Earth while Alan reports to the racetrack. Hope to see you then. :)_

_Till later,_

_Time Guardian_


	8. A New Day

Chapter 8 – A New Day

"Milady?"

Lady Penelope stirred slightly at the inquiry and opened one eye. Daylight flooded in brilliantly from the windows of her study, almost making her close her eyes again, but after a moment she reluctantly opened her eyes. Her whole body ached, and she realized that had been the result of spending the whole night in her study, researching any possible leads in the kidnapping of the Prime Minister. She had even been in contact with Jeff, who had nothing new to report but had promised to let her know if International Rescue found out anything more.

She found herself slumped forward in her chair, her head resting on her desk near her keyboard.

As she straightened and stretched out the kinks that had developed overnight, she noticed Parker's worried look and gave him a wry smile. "I am sorry Parker, it looks like I didn't keep that promise of finding my own bed last night. Dare I ask what time it is?"

Parker, dressed in his traditional black and white butler attire, returned her wry smile. "I'm afraid it is well past nine, milady. Miss Tin-tin has been awake for some time, has already partaken of breakfast, and has even gone for an early morning swim."

"Ah, the energy of youth," she replied as she got her feet. Looking back at her computer, Penelope still had on her screen an inquiry that she had meant to send off to MI-5. She leaned over her keyboard for a moment, quickly typing in the command to send off her request then turned back to Parker. "Right then, lead me to some breakfast, and then we shall go from there."

* * *

John stood at the view window of the station, watching as Thunderbird 3 established geo-synchronous orbit with Thunderbird 5. It was always a slow, laborious process, but as many times as he has seen that done, it never grew old.

He felt a slight bump as the ship docked. John grinned - another successful docking down on the books. It had taken close to a year and a couple of spacewalks by him and his brothers to get Thunderbird 5 ship shape again after what the Hood had done to it, and John was fiercely protective of the space station.

Gordon's voice then came through loud and clear through the station's intercom. "Thunderbird 3 to Thunderbird 5: Docking procedure is complete, please open the outer airlock."

John smiled as he hit the controls for the airlock. "FAB."

A hiss of air, and moments later Gordon walked onto deck with his duffel bag in tow. He grinned as he walked forward, dropping his duffel bag and giving his brother a quick hug before launching into his normal spiel. "You know, John, if you are feeling comfortable up here-"

Yes, it never failed. Grinning, John knew what Gordon was trying to do and he shook his head. "Nothing doing. I have had more than my fill of three months up here. Suck it up Gordon, you know Alan is having his choice of summer activities."

Gordon sighed. "It figures the Sprout would want to become a speed demon. Oh all right, go have fun. Just don't come crying to me when things get rough down there."

John stopped. Something about the way he had said that worried him. "Have there been any more Shadow Force sightings?"

Gordon nodded reluctantly. "The Prime Minister of Britain has been kidnapped, what do you expect? Though the authorities didn't mention them, according to Lady Penelope, it looks to have all of the earmarks of a Shadow Force hit. Take care, okay?"

John nodded as he grabbed for his bag and headed towards the airlock. "I promise. Just take care of my station, okay?"

Mock saluting, Gordon grinned. "Just go already. Keep Scott waiting any longer and he will probably dock you for the mileage."

* * *

Polonica Speedway sat on the border of a forest in Massachusetts. It was only an hour away from the academy and an hour and a half away from where Alan was staying with Fermat. It had been named curiously after a chain of auto parts stores that had taken up residence on the Eastern seaboard about five years ago. Most of the small racing circuits used them for their league racing, but for the summertime, the Pan-America Racing series uses their track as a jump off point for a league championship.

Alan rode up on his motorcycle and marveled at how little the raceway had changed since he had seen it last. Funded mostly by the ticket sales, the seating was enough for ten thousand people comfortably with the odd box seats overlooking the entire track.

The last time he had been able to come here, John was down from his rotation on Thunderbird 5 and had decided to come visit him on his own. Both brothers cheered on the cars and ate enough junk food to feel the effects the next day.

Backpack in hand, Alan parked his motorcycle near the entrance and grabbed for his special keycard that Mr. Edwards had sent to him by courier, along with a note that read clearly. "They believe in security at Polonica, Alan. Make sure you have your keycard or they will not let you near the pit area."

Keycard in hand, Alan reached the main gate. After checking in with the guard, and verified against a computer database of listed pit workers, he was directed to a metal door that apparently led him into the heart of the Polonica Complex. The sponsors influence was not lost on him: The Polonica logo had been painted on almost everything that he could see. After one long hallway and another door, Alan found himself outside, but this time he stood in front of the pits.

Polonica had been designed for high volume racing, so Alan had to check through various pit crews checking their vehicles before he found the space reserved for the Edwards racing group.

It was a small space to Alan and seemed no bigger than Brain's laboratory on the island, but the two cars he knew that Mr. Edwards raced were sitting there, a testament to their glory. The red and black models emblazoned with the Edwards racing logo were non-descript at best, but Alan could tell that a lot of care had been placed into each car.

"Alan my boy, it's good to see that you have made it!"

Alan heard Mr. Edwards, but could not see him, at least until he saw him slide from in under one of the two cars. The man was clad in jeans and a red shirt with one of his race logos. He sat up and grabbed for a towel that he had nearby, taking off a layer of grease that he had accumulated on his hands, all the while explaining. "I'm afraid you are the first one to have arrived. I had invited three other Wharton students to come and be interns as well. One has cancelled on me, but hopefully the others will show up soon enough. Tell you what, stow what gear you have in one of those lockers in the corner and we will get to work. I can catch the others up once they get here."

Alan found the lockers easily enough to stow his backpack, and soon Mr. Edwards was showing him the finer parts of the engines in each one of the machines. It had been nearly a half hour before the other two guys showed up that Mr. Edwards had mentioned. Alan recognized one of them as a member of the Academy's science team. He was nearly as tall as Alan, decked out in jeans and a blue t-shirt that contrasted against his red hair. The other guy was a head shorter and wore jeans and a black t-shirt that blended in with his dark brown hair. Alan had seen around the school grounds, but he did not know much about.

"Alan, I would like for you to meet Derrick James and Stanton Williams, the other two interns that you will be working with."

Alan extended his hand to each of his counterparts, and they exchanged handshakes. eagerly.

The three then turned back to Mr. Edwards, who in turn smiled at all of them.

"This is great. I finally have my whole pit crew, and hopefully after you learn what will be required, we will be able to win a few races. Ok, let's get started on what kind of maintenance these engines will need."

* * *

That evening, Jeff sat in his lounge at the command and control center, studying the computer readouts of the news around the world. Since the successful kidnapping of Britain's Prime Minister, there had been two other kidnappings. Japan's Prime Minister was taken during a daring invasion of his residence and the Prime Minister of Australia had been taken while in route to a cabinet meeting.

Along with the information that he had been receiving from Lady Penelope, the outlook was beginning to look grim. This Shadow Force or whatever they called themselves seemed to be making a massive power play, and if the Hood was truly helping them, then potential government secrets were more than ready to go into the wrong hands.

He didn't even want to think about those implications. Jeff had already spoke to Gordon while he was in route to Thunderbird 5, making sure that when he was situated that he would double the normal scans of any media or communications normally used around the world. International Rescue was meant to be just that, rescuing people from dangerous situations. However, when there was no sign of the kidnapped victims and their own scans couldn't add anything that the authorities had already tried, there wasn't much else they could do but wait for Shadow Force to make their next move.

With a yawn, Jeff checked the time and realized that Alan was to have completed his first day of training today. He contemplated calling his son, and then realized what time it would be there. He could always check in on him later.

After powering down the command and control center, Jeff got to his feet and headed off to bed.

* * *

_So Shadow Force has been a bit busy, and Alan's first day at the track seems to be going off without a hitch. Next Chapter? John's home, Tin-Tin learns what her uncle has been up to, and Alan finds out how long it'll be before he gets to try his hand at the track._

_This has been one interesting learning experience so far, and I am just barely getting started. I appreciate the reviews, and by all means, please keep them coming. It helps to let me know if I am on the right track (no pun intended :P )._

_Hope to see you next time, _

_Time Guardian_


	9. Bet on It

Chapter Nine – Bet on It

As John Tracy stepped into the lounge, he breathed in the morning sea air and felt right at home. He did love being in space with the various constellations and access to communications on a whim, but coming home had its own special place. He had disembarked Thunderbird 3 ahead of Scott after he offered to do the post flight checks.

It seemed strangely quiet for that time of day so he called out. "Hello? Dad, is anyone here?"

Moments later, Jeff came into the lounge. "It's good to see you, John. The ride back okay?"

John nodded. "Scott is securing everything in the hanger now. How about Alan, did you see him off to his race filled summer?"

His father laughed, "Oh, I don't think he realizes that he isn't going to see much action other than behind the scenes."

John chuckled. "Oh, on the contrary, I think he does. He confided to me the other night that he was going to try and wow the driver to see if he could at the very least get lessons."

Jeff couldn't help but smile at that prospect. "Now THAT sounds like Alan. More power to him if he manages to make that happen, though I will have to check on him a little more if that does happen."

John went to the kitchen and grabbed a juice box from the fridge and came back into the lounge. "Where is everyone else?"

"Virgil is doing some checks on Thunderbird 2 and Tin-Tin opted to spend the summer at Lady Penelope's."

John dropped onto the main sofa in the room. "Did anything else come out of the investigation into Shadow Force?"

"The authorities didn't have much more information than what was recovered at the scene," Jeff replied as he sat at his desk. "There have been reports of kidnappings coming through that sound suspiciously like their handiwork. I think you might have more information than the authorities."

John froze. _Busted._ "How long have you known?"

His father got up and walked over to the sofa, taking a seat beside him. "I could tell. The late nights you were up? The time you have logged on the computer? How could I not know?"

John stared everywhere else but at his father. "So, you are probably ready to call me paranoid?"

"No John, but I would call you someone who wanted to make sure that no one like the Hood could hurt us again."

He looked at his father with a look of relief on his face. "Thanks dad."

"I would like to see what you have though," Jeff replied, "The first time that the Hood came after us, he seemed to be working alone. If Shadow Force is now bankrolling him, we will need to know how far their reach can be. Until something else happens that we can trace, it will be status as usual around here."

John stood and stretched. "I can have some information for your reading pleasure in a few hours. In the meanwhile, I think I'm going to catch a nap, and then I have a certain brother of mine that needs to schedule some time to come mountain climbing with me."

Jeff smiled. "Mountain climbing? Dare I ask?"

John thumbed his nose and grinned. "Let's just say a certain brother's knot tying skills need to be sorely tested."

* * *

Malcolm Alistair woke up to his own personal hell. The last coherent thought he had had was when he was attacked by his guards, and now…now he didn't know where in the world he was.

As he became more aware, he realized that he was restrained in a metal chair in a non-descript room. There was a metal table in the middle. Across from him, he recognized the unconscious forms of Japan's and Australia's leaders sitting bound in chairs similar to his own.

"Look who's awake."

Malcolm flinched at the new voice and struggled against his restraints before realizing that there was no one else in the room with him.

He shouted out to the open air. "Who are you? Why are you doing this?"

"Why?" the voice mocked. "Why not? The world is ripe for domination, and I am but merely a player in its conquest."

Out of nowhere, a wave of pain assaulted Malcolm's senses. He closed his eyes and groaned.

The voice seemed amused by his pain. "Like it? Even now, my mind is in yours, looking for the secrets you keep."

_This has to be a bad dream. Yes, that's it. If I keep my eyes closed…_

Malcolm then felt strong hands grasping his arms painfully. He opened his eyes in shock and looked into the eyes of his tormentor. He recognized him from the numerous reports that had crossed his desk. He spoke with a bravado he wasn't quite feeling. "Hood, so this is where you escaped to. There's no way this plan of yours will work. "

Laughter greeted his declaration. The Hood kept up the painful hold on his arms. "Oh, bet on it, Prime Minister. For you see, your government should be receiving a ransom demand for your safe return in just a few short hours. With Australia's and Japan's leaders here as well, we have some powerhouses that I am sure will have some secrets that are worth sharing, along with cleaning out a few country's bank accounts. Now, back to the business of picking your mind."

Malcolm groaned as a fresh wave of pain flooded his mind. Meetings with MI-5 and the cabinet came to his mind, and must to his disgust, he couldn't stop it.

* * *

In the workout room of her estate, Lady Penelope stood in her pink gi, following the fluid movements of Tai Chi. Though she was well versed in quite a few forms of self-defense, she found tai chi almost as relaxing as her daily bubble baths.

Beside her, Tin-Tin was going through the movements as well. The teen had chosen to spend her summer with Lady Penelope partly because the IR agent promised to train her in certain aspects of self defense and International Rescue, and add to that Alan's news that he was not coming back to the island for the summer.

Though she would not admit it to herself, Tin-Tin felt a brief stab of disappointment at the news. The more time that she had spent with Alan over the previous years, the more she had grown to appreciate him.

As she extended her arms outward for another move, Tin-Tin's mind extended outward, and encountered a familiar energy that she hadn't felt in years. It was impossible, it was unsettling, and yet-

She broke her stance and stumbled over to a nearby bench Penelope had placed over in a corner. The power she felt nearly took her breath away, and yet the only person she knew that could generate that much power should still be in prison.

Moments later, Tin-Tin heard Lady Penelope taking a seat beside her. "Tin-Tin? Are you all right?"

She clutched the pendant around her neck tightly. The feeling Tin-Tin had soon passed, but she had to know. "Lady Penelope, has my uncle escaped from prison?"

Tin-Tin's suspicions were verified when Lady Penelope didn't say anything. She turned to her. "I have been watching a lot of TV since you have been away from the house, but didn't hear any mention of any escapes."

"You are quite the perceptive one, Tin-Tin," Lady Penelope finally replied. She placed a comforting arm around the girl's shoulders. "Yes, your uncle has escaped prison. I didn't want to concern you since you were supposed to be here to relax for the summer. The boys know all about it. They are investigating now and will make sure that he cannot cause any trouble."

Tin-Tin nodded shakily, finally releasing her hold on her pendant. At least now she knew, but yet she couldn't get the nagging feeling from the back of her mind that there more to this than a simple prison break.

Reluctantly she stood up and plastered a smile on her face. "Let's finish our workout."

* * *

_Umm…long explanation about where I have been with this story, the short of it being this part when written for NanoWrimo, it took a totally different direction than what I finally decided on. It took a writer's block and a vacation to help me sort out what I wanted to convey at this point. One stumbling block down, half a dozen to go. (sigh) I will have more soon._


	10. Opportunities

Chapter 10 - Opportunities

It had been two weeks already, but Alan Tracy was finally getting into a normal routine.

In the mornings, he would ride his motorcycle over to the track and help Derrick and Stanton clean the Edwards Racing pit area and wash both of his cars. For lunch he would grab a hot dog from the fast food stand at the raceway, and then it was back to more tinkering and cleaning in the pit area as Mr. Edwards double checked the cars and made test runs on the track.

After one particular grueling day, Alan came back to the dorm room and dropped his stuff beside the door. He had recorded one of Mr. Edwards test runs on the track and after grabbing a few snacks from the fridge, he popped the video disc he had made into the player on top of the TV and settled down on the Sofa to watch. Alan watched the recording numerous times, looking for how the car handled the turns, where the car picked up the best speed, and even how it was able to pass the competition.

He had not been keeping track of the time, so he was more than startled when Fermat's voice broke into his thoughts. "A-Alan are you still up?"

Alan nearly fell off the sofa as he turned around to find that his friend standing behind him dressed in a robe. He checked his watch and realized that it was nearly three in the morning. He looked at him with an apologetic glance. "I'm sorry Fermat, I just wanted to study up on what I would be encountering racewise with Mr. Edwards."

Fermat yawned. "I don't blame you, but do me a favor and turn down the volume will you? I-I have to give a presentation for Introduction to Quantum Mechanics tomorrow, and I don't want to fall asleep in front of the class."

Thorughly chargined, Alan grabbed the remote. "Sorry Fermat."

Fermat gave him a sleepy grin. "Y-You really are focusing on this. Do you think you will be able to race soon?"

Alan looked thoughtful as he muted the sound. He had mentioned to his friend more than once that he had a secret desire to get behind the wheel of a race car. "I hope so. I mean I'm not in any hurry, just being around the cars is a rush for me, for now at least."

"You think your dad is disappointed that you didn't want to come home?"

The question had been totally unexpected, and Alan looked at Fermat in some surprise. "What do you mean, Fermat?"

"I saw that look, Alan. He really wanted you to come home."

Alan had in fact seen that look in his father's eyes that day, in fact it was all too hard to miss. The business with the Hood also had him on edge, but he was determined to be the last one to admit that. Memories of invisible hands choking off his oxygen supply were still a little hard to take even after all of this time. More than once Fermat inquired about his weird sleeping patterns, but Alan just shrugged it off as wanting to stay up for a little while longer.

Alan waved Fermat off. "Get some sleep, Fermat. That class will want to learn about quantum mechanics tomorrow."

--

After waking up nearly two hours late the next day, Alan broke all speed records and raced to the track. When he ran into the pit area though, he found no one there. He looked around in some confusion until he heard engine noises out in the track area. Following them, he found Stanton and Mr. Edwards standing at the rails bordering the oval shaped dirt track and went out to join them.

At the sound of his approach, Stanton turned around and laughed. "'Bout time you showed up. Late night, Tracy?"

Alan brushed off the comment as he took up a position beside him to watch the track. "Just dreaming of speed and more speed. What's going on?"

Stanton pointed out towards the dirt track as one of their cars was being put through its paces. "Mr. Edwards is giving us an opportunity to become backup drivers and challenged us. The fastest time gets the job. You game?"

"Actually, I'm not sure that we should give you a chance, Mister Tracy," Mike Edwards replied while keeping his eyes on the track. "Opportunities like this do not come every day, and if you are not going to be on time, how can I trust you to back me up if you are chosen to be my backup driver?"

Alan wasn't about to lose out on this opportunity if he could help it. "It was totally my fault, Mr. Edwards. I was watching some of your race recordings last night and I fell asleep on the sofa. It was totally irresponsible and I totally understand if you don't want to give me a chance."

--

As he watched his car cross the finish line, Mike Edwards clicked on the stopwatch that he held. He had allowed Derrick to race first, and his time was only slightly slower than his own. He quickly made a mental note of the time and then turned to Alan. "So you were watching my race recordings?"

He watched in some amusement as Alan scrambled to explain. "I was watching the way your car handled the turns and noticed that it didn't seem to be smooth at all and-"

Mike hadn't heard back from his contacts since their initial order to keep an eye on Alan, but he wasn't about to deviate from a chance at a fortune that he had been initially promised. He took a chance and interrupted Alan. "That'll be quite enough, Mister Tracy. For being late today, you get to clean my primary and backup cars without any help. As to this opportunity, Stanton will be next to race, but you will be allowed a turn. Are there any questions?"

He watched as Alan smiled and replied with enthusiasm. "No sir, and thank you!"

Mike smiled in return as he turned back in time to watch Derrick bring the car to a stop. As far as performances go, Derrick did quite well, but Mike noticed on the dirt track the steep turns proved to be quite the challenge and Derrick spun out more than once.

"Stanton, suit up," he spoke quickly, "you're next."

--

In his study, Jeff Tracy viewed the data John had compiled on Shadow Force and truly wondered if they bit off more than they could chew. News reports, Military communications, Thunderbird Five's capabilities at monitoring communications were truly remarkable, but at the same time they could only tell them what was already known, which amounted to almost nothing.

The military chatter from Australia and Japan indicated that they had no idea how their leaders were spirited away. What little Jeff had read in the British newspapers indicated more, that the authorities found the security detail compromised at Downing Street.

John had managed to capture some communications that seemed to come from suspicious sources, but all they amounted to was people talking in code, seemingly moving things that didn't have names. Shadow force seemed to be just as elusive as their name suggested.

"Dad."

He looked up suddenly from his reading to find John standing in front of him. He could tell something was wrong by the frown on his son's face. "What is it John?"

John stared at him solemnly. "I just checked in with Gordon. News sources are reporting that ransom demands are coming in for the kidnapped leaders. Shadow Force is taking responsibility."

Jeff shook his head in confusion. "It can't just be for the money - they wouldn't have broken the Hood out otherwise."

John nodded solemnly. "I know, and that's bothering me."

--

Alan leaned forward on the rail bordering the dirt track and watched as Stanton started his run. Compared to Derrick, Alan noticed that Stanton was handling the curves of the track better, but once he came out of the turns he was losing considerable speed each time.

Mr. Edwards shook his head as he looked at the stopwatch he held. Apparently he wasn't so impressed either.

Minutes later, Stanton pulled the car to a stop beside where they were standing and shut off the engine. When he got out of the car and took off his helmet, Mr. Edwards called out to him. "Not too bad, Stanton, but you were a few seconds off of Derrick's time."

Stanton kicked at the dirt in frustration before walking over to Alan and tossing him the helmet. "Time to kick it up, Tracy."


	11. Dreaming of Speed

Chapter 11 – Dreaming of Speed

Alan had always craved speed and the open road.

When he was first learning how to drive, Gordon had helped by finding some open fields to allow him to work on his technique and skills. Alan learned the basic skills needed (along with doing a few laps and spinouts in the process). He did have a chance to work on cars before with his brothers, but it was another matter altogether when you were in the drivers seat feeling the acceleration through the seat of your pants. It wasn't quite as much of a rush as flying in Thunderbird one or three, but it did rank up there.

Putting the helmet on, Alan got in behind the wheel of the car that he had been caring for these past few weeks and took a calming breath.

_OK, get a hold of yourself, if you really want this gig you are going to have to focus. _

He secured the safety restraints across his body and pressed a button on the dash, smiling in satisfaction as the car roared to life. Alan put the car into gear and sped off down the dirt track.

The adrenaline rush was instantaneous.

Alan whooped with joy as he sped into each turn letting off of the gas and using his momentum to power through the turns. Everything about his run was feeling neat and tight, but the only thing that mattered was the time on Mr. Edwards's stopwatch when all was said and done. Alan shifted gears, allowing his speed to pickup in the far lane and after handing the turn just as well as he did the first. He crossed the designated finish line and stopped the car with a flourish, spinning the car until it finally stopped perpendicular to the track.

As the dust settled, Alan eagerly took off his helmet and undid his safety restraints. Once he was out of the car, he found Mr. Edwards at the side of the track staring at his stopwatch.

He walked over to Mr. Edwards eagerly, doing his best to keep his curiosity in check.

After a few minutes, Mr. Edwards looked up at him with a neutral expression. "Well, Mister Tracy, showing off in the classroom like that would have cost you some time in detention, but in this case your technique saved the day. You shaved off thirty seconds off of Derrick's time. Congratulations, you are my backup driver."

--

On his way back from the track, Alan had picked up some Chinese food, and it wasn't until later that evening when he sat on a barstool at the kitchen counter relaying the story to Fermat did he fully celebrate. Between bites of Kung Pao chicken, Alan finished his story. "-And Mr. Edwards told me that he will put me in the rotation after the next major race!"

Fermat grinned as he took another egg roll from one of the takeout containers. "Congratulations Alan, I-I knew you would do it one way or another. Meanwhile I have to find a way to get some extra credit in my physics class."

Alan raised an eyebrow. "You?"

Fermat shrugged his shoulders. "I got a B in a presentation for the class. Our Professor apparently wanted to discount some of the stuff I presented. My dad was able to put some of these theories to use, so I don't see why it would have been such a big problem."

Alan grinned. "Fermat my friend, you have encountered what is called professional jealousy. Your dad is a well respected man in his field, isn't he?"

"Y-Yeah, so?"

"They see you as a protégée, learning stuff way beyond anything those stuffed shirts could possibly address," Alan pointed out as he pushed back his plate of food, "Now when I go to college, I am definitely going to be taking physics and aeronautics. When I become a famous race car driver, I want to be able to fly myself to the different venues. Monaco, Italy, Daytona, there's a bunch of race courses I would like to lay waste to, plus flying in the open air with nothing around you for miles can be amazing."

"Y-You have proven that to me more than once, Alan," Fermat replied with a grin. "Promise me a front row seat when you get your chance to race?"

"Fermat, I thought you were not that interested in racing?"

"Well, considering the real world applications of watching race cars in action, combined with watching one of my best friends race, I think I can make the time to watch. Besides, if I play my cards right, I can get extra credit for my physics class if I turn in a report on the mechanics of racing."

Groaning, Alan retorted. "I resent being a guinea pig so you better make sure and quote me in your report."

--

The next day started off like normal, and Alan soon found himself helping Derrick and Stanton clean their pit area. Later while the others were checking over the engines and gauges, he went under the car to double check everything was secure with an oil change he had performed.

His mind was wandering, so Alan hadn't noticed how the pit area had grown quiet. When he heard new voices though, he couldn't help but notice them.

One of them sounded like Mr. Edwards for sure- but the other sounded like the Hood.


	12. Discoveries

Chapter 12 - Discoveries

Alan froze as he heard the familiar yet chilling voice. _The Hood!_

Memories washed over him as he remembered the encounters when the Hood invaded Tracy Island. A wave of fresh anger threatened to overtake him until he heard Mr. Edwards speak.

"Our plans are in place. The main league race will happen in a few days, along with a few surprises. The Governor and the President of the United States will be here as promised."

When Alan heard the Hood's voice again, he realized that the criminal was talking through some sort of video communicator.

The Hood's voice was slightly muted and had a digital quality to it. "General X cannot afford any delays. Make sure the plan goes off without a hitch. Do you still have Alan Tracy under surveillance?"

"Yes."

The Hood's voice held an amused tone this time. "Good, keep him close at hand. If anything should happen to put our plans in jeopardy, he will be of use to us."

_Of use?_ Alan didn't like those possibilities. He held his position until he heard Mr. Edwards acknowledge the transmission and then walked out of the pit area. After waiting for nearly ten minutes, Alan was satisfied that the coast was clear, and he pushed himself from out under the car he was working on.

What he had just heard did nothing but unsettle him. From what he knew, Shadow Force had been the ones to free the Hood. What could they be planning?

Alan's thoughts continued a mile a minute as he rode back to the complex and rode the elevator up to the dorm room. As he entered, he threw his backpack over beside the couch and headed to the small kitchen. It was functional enough to fix almost any type of food desired, but all Alan wanted right now was some liquid refreshment.

Grabbing a soda from the small fridge, Alan took a seat at one of the stools near the counter and pondered his options. He could follow this, but if this turned out bad, his summer would be over. However, if he didn't and this turned out bad - _sigh_.

Decision made, Alan brought up his wrist and checked out the Tele-com that his dad had given him. It took a few minutes of fiddling with the dial, but he managed to open a communications channel and decided to follow through on his intent. "Alan to Thunderbird 5, come in please."

--

Gordon Tracy was a man who was extremely bored. He leaned back in his seat in front of the communication console of Thunderbird 5 and mentally checked off his to-do list: _Call in to Tracy Island - check, manual check of communication systems - check, space station defenses - check. Cleaning? I could always do that later._

A beep issued from the comm panel made Gordon sit up and take notice. It had come from one of the latest editions to the panel in order to indicate someone using one of the Tele-com units.

Gordon sat straight up in his chair and pressed a button, and surprised to see Alan's face come up on his video screen. "Hey Sprout, receiving you loud and clear."

He grinned as he saw Alan sputter in surprise. "Gordon? What are you doing up there? Where's John?"

"It is rotation time again, what do you expect when there's no one else to rotate with for now?"

Alan laughed. "Can you blame me? It's pretty cool playing grease monkey down here for the summer."

Gordon leaned back in his chair and grinned. "I guess not. Getting pretty close to something of interest eh? What about Tin-Tin? I thought you two had a thing going, eh?"

"Gordon-"

He laughed. It was clear from Alan's red face that his comment had hit home. "Alan, up here you take whatever entertainment you can get in-between the work. So I don't suppose this was just a social call?"

He watched in some confusion as Alan's face took on a serious tone. "Gordon, could you run a check on Mike Edwards for me?"

"The man you are working for at the race track?" Gordon frowned. Between dad and Scott, he had been apprised of his brother's adventures, but something about this request seemed wrong. "Look, if something's wrong maybe dad-"

"Dad has his hands full with rescues and keeping tabs on the Hood," Alan interrupted. "Besides, all I have are suspicions anyway. If I go to dad I want something solid."

Gordon was unconvinced, but if something had his brother spooked, he wasn't going to let it slide. "Ok, I should have something for you in a couple of hours then. Alan, are you okay?"

"I'm fine Gordon, drop it will ya?"

Gordon flinched mockingly. "Ok, Ok. touch-y. Just watch yourself and promise to call if there's any trouble, okay?"

Alan smiled. "FAB. Alan out."

As Alan's image disappeared from the screen, Gordon turned to a nearby computer keyboard and began his search.

_Okay Alan, let's see why Mr. Edwards has you spooked._

--

General X stormed into the quarters that he had assigned to the Hood and was more than a little irritated to see him sitting cross-legged on top of the bed with eyes closed and arms outstretched.

"Hood!"

The Hood didn't open his eyes, which enraged the General even more. "Fine, meditate all you want, but know this: Once our American operative takes over the White House, I will need the information you have gathered from the other government prisoners we have. If you do not have that for me by that time, your life is forfeit."

And with that, the General turned and walked out.

Once it was silent in his room again, the Hood opened his eyes and smiled. He had heard every word that the General had said, and it had taken quite a bit of self control not to kill the General right there.

Assuming the dampening field would keep him in line, the General had left the Hood mostly to his own devices over the days with the provision that he worked on the prisoners that were brought in. It had taken a few days and sneaking into different parts of the base, but in addition to gathering useful information from the prisoners, he had found out many other things, including how the dampening field worked.

_Just wait General; we will soon see who is taking orders around here._


	13. Skyjacking

_Chapter 13 - Skyjacking_

After a few hours of searching every angle he could think of, Gordon Tracy came up with absolutely nothing.

Mike Edwards simply came across as a school teacher, recognized by a few organizations with his work with kids and within the realms of Science and Mathematics. Gordon managed to also find a few articles detailing the man's racing efforts, but nothing that screamed trouble.

Still, his brother was bothered by something. Great, back to square one. Maybe I should call Alan back and-

Suddenly the monitor that was used to keep track of distress calls flared to life. The audio was initially full of static, but after Gordon tried a few adjustments that John had programmed into the frequencies, a rapid fire stream of French filtered through the stations speakers, only to be followed seconds later by heavily accented English.

"If anyone can hear my voice, our aircraft is under attack, repeat under attack!"

Swearing, Gordon pressed a button on the comm panel and spoke quickly. "Unidentified aircraft, this is International Rescue, please state your course and heading."

The voice from the other side sounded immensely relieved. "International Rescue, this is JetFrance One. We are carrying the President of France on board on a heading across the Atlantic Ocean to New York. We've lost contact with our control tower and our GPS has been sabotaged. We now have two smaller planes claiming to be from Shadow Force that are flanking either side of us. They're stating that they are responsible for the sabotage and that if they're not allowed to board our craft that we will be shot down!"

* * *

Jeff ran into the lounge at the sound of the alarm and quickly activated the command and control center. Monitors showing sensor readings flared to life, and Gordon's face appeared on the main monitor.

Jeff quickly set to work. "What's the situation, Gordon?"

"It looks like an attempted skyjacking, dad. France's President was in a jet heading for New York, but now the pilot is reporting trouble. Their GPS beacon has been sabotaged, and now they report at least two smaller planes flanking them. They have been receiving threats from the two planes to either allow them to board or the jet would be shot down," Gordon relayed with a worried glance, "Dad, the planes are claiming that they are from Shadow Force."

Jeff frowned. This had to be Shadow Force's most unusual kidnapping attempt yet. "What about a military response?"

"The French government has scrambled a few jets but they have yet to find them. Those two planes have to be using some sort of scrambler for the jet to be invisible to them. If it wasn't for John's settings up here that jet might have been invisible to us as well," Gordon replied.

"Ok, Thunderbirds are go," Jeff assured him as he saw John, Scott and Virgil rush into the lounge. He then turned and addressed them. "Scott, take Thunderbird One. Virgil, you and John follow along in Thunderbird Two. I will stay here and man the control center here. Head off Shadow Force and make sure those passengers get to New York."

Once in the air, Virgil contacted Gordon for the coordinates of the jet and made the necessary course settings. Once he had everything set, he turned to John. "So just how are we finding this jet when France can't?"

John replied. "When I was keeping tabs on the group, I intercepted snatches of their transmissions, but the rest of them were all static. I was able to analyze those transmissions and figure out the jamming frequencies that they were using."

"And if we know the frequency they use, we can bypass the jamming and find the jet we are looking for," Virgil finished the line of reasoning.

"Exactly."

Virgil then turned his attention back to his instruments and opening a comm channel. "Thunderbird One from Thunderbird Two. Setting maximum speed. ETA is forty-five minutes."

Scott's reply came through the speakers. "FAB Virgil."

* * *

_Over the Atlantic Ocean, thirty minutes later-_

Scott arrived on the scene first in Thunderbird One. Ahead of him he spotted JetFrance One, and he made sure to keep his distance from them before opening a comm channel. "Base from Thunderbird One - I have arrived at the danger zone. The two Shadow Force planes are keeping pretty close to the jet, so I'm not sure if we can distract them without putting JetFrance One in danger."

His father's worried face came up on a small vid screen in front of him. "So what we have is a hostage situation in the sky. Are you able to gauge their firepower from your distance?"

Scott made a check of the scanners available to him, and what he saw did nothing to reassure him. "Dad, those planes are hooked up with some sort of laser type system. My scanners can barely get a proper read on them and-"

Suddenly Gordon's voice broke through, interrupting Scott. "Thunderbird One from Thunderbird Five. JetFrance One has just reported that the planes are gearing up to attack. There's no time left!"

No sooner had his brother said those words, a brilliant beam of light caught Scott's attention. Looking up in shock, he watched as he saw one of the wings that had been part of JetFrance One fall apart from the Jet and landed in the ocean. The resulting spray of water was nearly twenty feet high.

Scott's instincts went into overdrive. "Dad, One of the planes just cut off the jet's wing. I've got to distract them or else the people on that jet are as good as dead."

* * *


	14. The Devil is in the Details

Chapter 14 - The Devil is in the Details

John and Virgil were racing to the site in Thunderbird Two while monitoring the transmissions between Thunderbird One and Tracy Island.

When they heard Scott announce the jet lost a wing, they were both grim.

"We better step on it," John muttered. "Taking on two planes and helping the jet is going to be a lot for Scott to handle."

Virgil replied. "We're nearly there now. ETA is five minutes."

--

Scott sped into action, pouring on the speed until he was within a hundred feet of the scene.

The jet was wobbling wildly as it was trying to find it's own balance, but the first order of business was getting the two planes that were staying close to bug off.

He pressed a button on his instrument panel, allowing targeting information to appear on a small monitor within the panel. Scott adjusted the aim and then fired two rockets.

The two projectiles sped forward and split off, each barely clearing above the two Shadow Force planes.

Seconds later, each plane accelerated off into the distance.

He took a deep breath. Scott had hoped the warning shots would be simple enough to scare them off. One problem down, one to go.

Opening a comm channel, Scott spoke quickly as he was working out the plan in his mind. "JetFrance One, this is International Rescue. Now I'm not far behind you in my craft. Keep her as steady as you can. I am going to come under and prop you guys up."

A nervous affirmation came over the speakers.

Scott maneuvered Thunderbird one swiftly to match the speed and managed to make it under the jet. Slowly, he increased the burn of his vertical thrusters while maintaining his forward momentum until he felt a jarring bump.

Sensors screamed at him that things were far from normal, but Scott managed to shut those out of his mind as he poured on the thrust. After a few tense moments, the sounds of groaning metal finally subsided and a check of his speed and altitude indicated that they were leveling off.

He smiled as he heard from the jet once more. "International Rescue, this is JetFrance one. I don't know how you did it, but we have some people on board that are very grateful to you."

"All part of the service," Scott acknowledged.

Seconds later, John's voice came through. "Thunderbird One from Thunderbird Two. We are behind you now. How about we go above and use the magnetic clamps to take some weight off of your shoulders?"

Everything was now under control. Scott smiled. "FAB, Thunderbird Two. Let's get these passengers to safety."

--

President Marilyn Winters leaned back in her seat and stared out the window as Air Force One touched down with a jolt. The sun was low in the sky, and it cast the surrounding airport in shades of red and orange. There was little activity it seemed, and for that she was thankful. Ever since the kidnapping of the world leaders had started, she had found herself having to justify her activities to the press along with her own cabinet.

When the countries affected by the kidnappings started seeing ransom demands, they had panicked and turned to the United Nations for assistance and reassurance. She had offered what resources the United States had to offer, but then they expressed concern for her safety. Offering reassurances in the Secret Service and her own information network, Marilyn effectively stated to the masses that she wasn't about to change her schedule for terrorists.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to find the head Secret Service agent on her security detail. "Madame President, are you ready to go to the governor's mansion?"

It had been the only concession she had made for the trip. The head of the Secret Service had reasoned that with the recent kidnappings of the world leaders it stood to reason that she would be better protected as compared to a hotel. After a brief counsel with the Governor last night, everything was agreed to and the arrangements were made.

She took off the seat belt and stood, stretching out the kinks that she had developed in mid-flight. "Yes, let's get going."

--

The drive to the Governor's mansion was uneventful, and soon Marilyn found herself ushered into the library of the mansion. It had been a few months since she had seen Governor Jack Saunders. They were old friends from their time in school together so when she entered the library, Jack got to his feet and smiled eagerly. "Marilyn, it is good to see you safe and sound. When we received the report about the kidnapping attempt on the president of France, we were thinking the worst."

Truth be told, she had received the news of the attempt about twenty minutes into her flight from Washington.

The news of the attempt had left her with an uneasy feeling. "So I heard. My security detail has been fully briefed."

Jack visibly relaxed. "Of course, our local Police force is at the disposal of the Secret Service. You can keep to yourself here in my home or tour the city over the next two days until the race. My people have been over the plans of the track and have come up with a few contingency plans-"

She nodded and yawned at the same time. "There will be plenty of time to go over this in the morning, Jack. In the meanwhile, if you can show me to a nice warm bed, you will make this sleepy politician very happy."

He nodded with a grin. "I think that can be arranged."

--

Vice President Gene Prescott sat in his study and stared at the message he had received from his source from within Shadow Force: _Plans are in place. In two days, make speech to United States and take command._

He smiled as he looked at a small framed photo that sat beside his computer screen. It was a photo of him standing beside Marilyn Winters on one of their many photo-ops during their last campaign.

It was such a shame that she would have to disappear, but after all, it was just politics.


	15. Race Day

Chapter 15 - Race Day

Alan was nervous that evening as he and Fermat pulled up to the raceway on their motorcycles.

He had never heard back from Gordon, and over the previous day and a half, Alan lost track of time. While working on the two race cars with Derrick and Stanton, he had kept an eye on the two of them, but they were not acting suspicious.

Alan passed through the security checkpoint into the heart of the speedway with Fermat close behind him. Strangely enough, it was one of the few things that Mr. Edwards had agreed to during the final meeting before the race.

He quickly hurried to the pit area, and was nearly in a full run until he heard Fermat call out. "Alan, will you hold on?"

Coming to a stop, he turned around just in time to see Fermat look at him with a worried look. "Y-you were never good at hiding things, Alan. Now tell me why I am really here."

Alan was taken aback by the question, but he recovered quickly. "I thought you wanted extra credit for your classes. What better way to do that than to see the cars close up?"

Fermat frowned, and then turned on his heel. "I guess some things really don't change. If you want to tell me the truth Alan, you will find me back at our rooms, were I should have stayed in the f-first place!"

Alan let out a breath of frustration. He had only told Gordon of his fears, but if anything was going to happen tonight, he would need Fermat's help for sure. He reached out a hand. "Fermat, wait. I'll tell you what's going on, but it will have to be low and on the way to the pits. I still have to help prepare for a race after all."

It wasn't until they reached the Edwards racing pit area that Alan had finished telling Fermat everything that he had overheard the day he was under the car.

Fermat was shell shocked. "W-why did you come tonight, Alan are you crazy? The Hood might very well have it in for you!"

"Shh, Fermat, I have my reasons and you need to keep it down. There are two other guys I work with here and- oh Stanton, Derrick, what's wrong?"

When Alan had walked into the heart of their pit area, he had noticed something wrong. One of the two race cars was gone, which was far from normal protocol since it was far from time for the start of the race.

Stanton walked over to him. "Plenty's wrong. Mr. Edwards is MIA and so is one the cars. One of the race officials came by and warned us that if he didn't show up in the next fifteen minutes that he would be disqualified."

Alan thought fast. Something was definitely going on, but he was going to need room to investigate this in his own way. "Stanton, I think I know where he might be. Go find the race officials and see if you can stall for time. Derrick, go check with the other pit areas - Mr. Edwards probably went to talk to one of the other racers."

Both of them nodded and ran out of the pit area, leaving Alan and Fermat alone.

Fermat watched in some confusion as Alan rushed over to a vid monitor at one corner of the pit area and powered it on. "What are you-"

Alan held up a hand as he watched a live video feed of the track come onto the screen. "Mr. Edwards' conversation with the Hood mentioned something about the President of the United States. Fermat, she's here tonight slated to kick off the start of the racing season. What time is it now?"

"Nine-fifteen, why?"

Alan groaned, "Then we're too late to stop what might happen." He pointed to a figure on the monitor.

"President Winters is already walking out onto the track."

--

Carrying a microphone, President Marilyn Winters smoothed her blouse down and stepped onto the grassy middle of the dirt racetrack, stopping only once to wave to Governor Saunders who had front row seats in the crowd.

She must have been breaking twenty different types of protocol coming to a race track clad in a red blouse, blue jeans and boots, but somehow she had a feeling that the ones that would care would be her press secretary and her personal assistant, both seemingly hell-bent on her maintaining the professional decorum of the highest office in America.

She stood at the starting line of the track and watched the numerous cars lined up ready to race, their engines already revving and straining for the task ahead.

Her Secret Service agents flanked her nearby as she lifted her microphone. "As your president, I would like to welcome you all to the tenth annual running of the Pan-America Racing Series. We have some good competition on the field tonight and it is shaping up to be an edge of your seat race."

The last part of the duty that she had agreed to was to wave the green starting flag. it had been placed in a holder a few feet to her right side. As she moved towards the flag she heard a slight hiss of air and that put her senses on alert. She hadn't survived a four year term merely on looks alone. She spoke quickly into her hidden communicator that she had clipped to the underside of her blouse collar. "Did anyone hear a noise?"

One by one, her secret service security detail reported in the negative, until one of them piped up quickly. "Madame President! Gas! Get to the rendezvous point!"

Before they had come to the race track, her security detail had come up with a contingency plan that they had reviewed dozens of times. She was no fool, she always listened well to the plans - after all, her life had always depended on it. Looking behind her, she saw that the hiss that she had heard earlier had been a gas canister placed at the bottom of the flag holder, and it was quickly emitting a pale white vapor that quickly spread throughout the area. Catching a whiff of the contents, she nearly choked up and held her nose as she broke for the nearby pit area. There was supposed to be two agents there that could get her out of this mess, especially since she was cut off from the rest of her detail.

President Winters had only made it five feet until her feet touched dirt track. Another few feet she would be free and-

In the confusion, a car roared up behind her and soon rough hands grabbed for her. The microphone that she had carried dropped to the ground.

She had had basic self defense training, but there was nothing in the books about outrunning gas and counterattacking a potential kidnapper. Marilyn swung around as best she could, but the gas was too overwhelming for her. Strength ebbing from her body, she fell into her kidnapper's arms.

--

Alan watched the video monitor in near disbelief as the car containing President Winters sped off the track and through the exit. The smoke had been bad, but not bad enough to obscure the car in question. So what he had overheard was true. "I've got to go. Mr. Evans has kidnapped the President and he's getting away."

He took a quick look back at Fermat as took off for the raceway's parking lot.

Despite his misgivings, Fermat ran after his friend, dodging people trying to flee the raceway in a near panic.

--

It had been a nearly claustrophobic experience, but they finally managed to make it to the parking lot and to their motorcycles.

Eyes wide, Fermat caught his breath and watched as Alan was doing exactly what he was afraid of. "Alan, I t-think that this is better for the S-secret S-service-"

"That gas on the field is taking them down," Alan countered as he slipped on his helmet. "Besides, I think we know those streets out there better than they do."

Shaking his head, Fermat couldn't argue with that logic. Pandemonium currently reigned at Polonica Speedway, and judging by the near gridlock of people trying to get out of the raceway and the growing line of cars trying to leave the parking lot, the authorities would need a miracle to be able to pick up the President's trail.

He grabbed for the helmet on his own bike. "T-then I better go with you Alan. S-someone's gotta keep you out of trouble."


	16. Unfair Turnabout

Chapter 16 – Unfair Turnabout

Alan and Fermat both took off towards the raceway exit. They carefully ducked and weaved in-between the fleeing cars and had to ride over a grassy median, but they finally made it to the main road.

Fermat breathed better once they were on the open streets, and adjusted the amount of light from his headlight so he could keep track of his friend. Alan had a lead on him, but with a slight adjustment in speed, he managed to shorten the lead to only a few feet.

Precious minutes passed, and soon found they were in the outskirts of a residential neighborhood. Two streets over was a freeway on-ramp, and Fermat knew that they were running out of time despite being within sight of the vehicle.

And that was when he saw the car pull a curious maneuver, spinning around to face them. In the glare of his headlight, he could just make out small metallic objects that dropped from the car moments before it pulled its maneuver. _What was it doing?_

He had his answer a moment later when he watched Alan's bike wipe out in front of him. "Alan!"

Fermat made a move to stop his own motorcycle when Mr. Edwards stepped out the car and pointed a gun in his direction!

Eyes widening, Fermat swerved off onto a side road, just barely dodging the gunfire that had come his way.

He came to a quick stop and forced himself to breathe even out. It had been months since he had been through an extremely stressful situation, but a student lecture on the theories of space travel paled in comparison to this.

Fermat waited a minute to make sure that he wasn't followed and then with a shaky hand, he brought up his tele-com he had on his wrist and made the necessary adjustments. He hated leaving his friend in trouble, but this situation was not one that he could handle alone.

"F-fermat to International Rescue. E-emergency priority one!"

--

Alan was feeling a pretty nasty case of road rash among other things. He had become quite a proficient rider since dad had bought him the graduation gift, but he realized that he hadn't wiped out on his own accord.

Around him, he spotted little metallic spikes, shaped and formed to look like an extreme version of jacks. Once his front tire had shredded, it was all that Alan could do to lay the bike down on it's own to minimize the damage. He had counted himself lucky on that aspect.

Mr. Edwards stood over him, grinning maniacally. In one hand, he held a gun, and with the other grabbed for Alan's arm, dragging him unceremoniously to his feet. "You know the Hood kept saying how he was bested by a mere brat of a boy. I have to admit Mister Tracy, you have given me quite the challenge, but the last thing Shadow Force needs is International Rescue traipsing around and interfering with their plans."

"To kidnap government figures?" Alan shot back. "I heard your 'discussion' with the Hood. You guys can't possibly keep a lid on this, especially with Shadow Force using all of those fireworks to break a criminal like the Hood out of jail."

"This is bigger than the Hood!" he shot back. "But since they consider International Rescue a threat to their plans, you will make a nice distraction so they will leave us alone for a while. Now move!"

Alan's heart sank as Mr. Edwards prodded him into the awaiting car's back seat. Beside him, President Winters laid slumped against the opposite window, her eyes closed. She must have been drugged with something.

After got in the car and sat down beside her, Mr. Edwards grabbed for his arm again, and this time instead of a gun the man held a hypodermic needle. "Now Mister Tracy, this won't hurt a bit."

Moments later Alan slumped back into his seat, eyes closed.

--

Although the sun wasn't due to set for a few hours yet, Jeff was glad to be getting a little bit of sleep. It seemed like every chance he had, something had come along to toss his plans on their ear. After the rescue of France's president, Brains had worked overtime getting the dents out of Thunderbird One and getting her sensors back in shape. An avalanche and the aftermath of an earthquake had kept all on Tracy Island on their toes over the following days.

Head hit pillow, and he nearly had his eyes closed when the Klaxon sounded in his room. He shot up into a sitting position and grabbed for his tele-com. He had left instructions with Gordon to answer all incoming communications and not to disturb him unless it was urgent, so this could only mean trouble. "Jeff here. Gordon, what's going on?"

Jeff couldn't miss the pained look on his son's face along with the strained reply. "Fermat called in on the emergency channel, dad. Looks like both Alan and the President of the United States have just been kidnapped by Shadow Force."

Jeff sat on the edge of his bed in shock. "That's impossible."

On the small screen, he could see Gordon shake his head sadly. "I checked the media channels after I talked to Fermat, and it's on every major network channel, dad. At nine-fifteen this evening, the president had stopped off to view a local race with the state governor. She was announcing the start of the race when there was a tear gas attack. No one else was hurt, but according to witnesses when Alan saw that she was being taken away, he apparently tried to intervene by chasing them on motorcycle. Fermat followed them and saw Alan take a tumble. He tried to help but the kidnapper fired at him. The kid managed to snag a side road to get away and got me on the horn."

Jeff was already mentally back in uniform as he stood up, turning his room light on and thinking quickly. "Is Fermat all right?"

Gordon nodded. "He's shaken up more than anything else. It took him two tries to tell me all that happened - and dad, there's something else you should know. According to Fermat, Mr. Edwards from the Academy was kidnapper. Alan had me try and do a check on him two days ago."

That stopped Jeff in his tracks cold. Mr. Edwards - he was with Shadow Force, that meant that they were being watched from the beginning and this was much bigger than just the Hood getting busted out of Jail. Taking Alan must be a diversion or at worse a trap, but he was not about to let them mess with the likes of International Rescue.

Digesting the information his son was giving him, Jeff came to a quick decision. "Gordon, I'll get Virgil and John to go there in Thunderbird Two. Once they are in the air, give them all of the information you just gave me and tell them to get to that scene as fast as they can. Meanwhile, Scott and I are going to do a little Shadow Force hunting."  


* * *

_Don't get too used to this quick updating thing - I had what I wanted planned in my head for this chapter and lets just say I didn't get any sleep as a result. I put fingers to keyboard in self defense and here it is. More to follow as soon as I can. ;)_


	17. Following the Trail

Chapter 17 - Following the Trail

An hour later, Thunderbird Two landed near the raceway, and Virgil and John quickly went to work.

Virgil set about checking the raceway and with the people there, while John took a hover bike from Thunderbird Two and quickly rushed to the coordinates Fermat had given him.

Fermat had been taken back to the raceway by the authorities for questioning, so it was John who went to check the scene. He got within five feet of the scene which had been taped off, he made a scan of the area and found it deserted save for two cops who were keeping guard over the scene.

It was then that he saw the overturned motorcycle in the street. _What have you gotten yourself into, Alan?_

John thought through his options and decided quickly that they didn't amount to much. The only other thing he could think to try was to check and see if his brother had his tele-com active. Maybe he could home in on it and find Alan that way. After checking a few settings on his own tele-com and finding nothing, decided to get a different perspective. "John calling Thunderbird Five."

Once he had Gordon on the line, John asked him to check the frequency that he knew the tele-coms were transmitting on. He waited a few moments as Gordon checked a few readings on his panel, then was surprised as he swore. "I've got a fix, but you are not going to like this. Alan's in the air. Whoever he's following or whoever has him, they're heading towards the area where Scott had that run-in with those planes."

"Get that information to Dad and Scott," John ordered. "Meanwhile I will get back with Virgil and we'll wrap up here. There's not much more to find around here anyway."

"FAB"

No sooner than he finished his conversation with Gordon, he heard a beep issue from his tele-com, and he checked it to find Virgil's worried face staring right back at him. "Go ahead, Virgil."

"The governor is safe," Virgil stated quickly. "The local authorities have him sequestered in a safe house, and they have emergency workers starting treatment on the victims affected by the gas. Just how many players are we going to have to deal with in this game?"

John thought for a moment back to the information that he had gathered after the Hood had been captured the first time. "There's no room for error. General X risked a lot of exposure getting the Hood out. The thing is we got to the key players thanks to Alan, but he's not here, and neither is the Hood. Gordon has tracked them to the air already."

"The air? They're moving fast. I wonder what other surprises Shadow Force have up their sleeves."

"You might be surprised, Virgil," John quipped. "How about a pickup? I have an idea about how we can track down one or more of the hired goons for that group, but we need to pick up Fermat and get on the horn to Lady Penelope."

--

Following Gordon's instructions, Scott had Thunderbird One back in the area where he had encountered the kidnapping attempt on the French President. He then followed the signal for a few miles and double checked his sensor readings before finally declaring. "Dad, according to Gordon this is the last spot where the readings from Alan's watch came from."

Jeff looked out from Thunderbird One and spotted the island below them. It was slightly smaller than their own island and the vast jungle and outcroppings of rock that covered a good chunk of it almost looked impassable. He had an uneasy feeling about all of this, but he wasn't about to let show. There are far "Find a spot to land, son. I have a feeling that whatever we are picking up is coming from that jungle."

"FAB."

Scott found a spot near the southern tip of the island and landed with no problems. He looked out across the landscape and noticed that it was quiet. "I have a bad feeling about this."

Both father and son climbed out cautiously, taking care to arm themselves with laser pistols that Brains had developed. Once on the ground, they fanned out to look around the perimeter of the jungle.

Scott shook his head as he pushed overgrown plants out of his way. "I'm not seeing anything, are you dad?"

Jeff started to reply when he saw something a few meters ahead. He used his tele-com to hail Gordon and spoke quickly. "Gordon, I need a scan of the island we are on, ASAP."

Seconds later he heard Gordon exclaim. "You two better get out of there now. There are at least a dozen heat signatures down there converging on your position!"

Jeff swore and he quickly motioned to Scott. "Back to Thunderbird One, fast!"

--

In a dimly lit cave, Marilyn Winters was coming to. Lying on the ground, she opened her eyes slowly, finding it easy to peer through the darkness and at the shoes of her male captor.

Her voice sounded thick and slow, even to her. "I hope you know by kidnapping the President of United States you have brought a world of hurt on yourself."

The man's voice was unfamiliar. "Oh, but you will be missed, Madame President. In a few hours your Vice President will be coming on the American airwaves, rallying the American public to hold strong during this crisis, when in reality he is working for us."

Marilyn's eyes widened. "You lie."

The man then leaned down into her field of vision and that is when she realized that he was the one that had kidnapped her at the raceway. He replied with a sneer. "You'll never know, now will you?"

Before she could make sense of his statement, Marilyn found herself being lifted to her feet and then pushed forward towards a large pit. She had no time to scream as she fell forward and down.

Minutes later, a quick check of her limbs seemed to indicate that she was intact, despite the pain from the impact of the fall. Marilyn looked back up at where the man had pushed her into the pit. She wasn't sure how far she had fallen, but judging by how high it looked along with the smooth rocky walls, she was sure that she wasn't getting back out of this pit without help.

She managed to push herself up into a sitting position, a move which her head protested greatly-

And that was when she saw the person laying on the ground a few feet away from her.


	18. Trapped

Chapter 18 - Trapped

They were about a hundred meters away from Thunderbird one when they began to run.

Scott knew the laser pistols they were armed with could stun a man, but judging by the noises behind them, there was definitely a group chasing them, and he didn't want to take his chances.

His father was close behind him, and they had a pretty good lead. They had made it to the clearing where Thunderbird One was when Scott heard a strange series of noises. Moments later a white fog surrounded Scott. It obscured his vision and when he breathed it in, he nearly choked.

Scott tried to move forward but found that his body was growing heavier with every step. He looked around and found that his dad had already collapsed. The men that had been chasing them had closed in, and through the haze of the gas he could make out men dressed in military type garb and gas masks.

One breath later, and Scott's vision started to waver. In the next breath he collapsed on the ground not far from where his father laid.

--

Alan opened his eyes and was surprised to find a strange lack of light. At first he wondered if he was still lying on the street from where he wiped out from his chase with Mr. Edwards until he realized the reason for the low light was because he was laying at the bottom of a very large pit.

"Are you all right?"

The voice had been unexpected, so Alan quickly scrambled into a sitting position. Unfortunately the move only served to make his head throb and he moaned. Looking around, he could just make out someone else at the base of this hole with him, and after a few moments he found that he was able to focus his eyes and make out who was in this predicament with him. "President Winters?"

Alan slowly picked himself up, wincing as he felt what he knew would be bruises soon enough. Sure enough, it was President Winters that sat across from him with a wry smile.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, son. I only regret that you had to join me like this." She stated.

He managed to get to his feet reluctantly. Checking his wrist, Alan realized that he still had his tele-com, which was totally odd. Both the Hood and this so called organization that he worked for were either getting stupid, or there was a reason that they wanted him to still be able to call out. Hoo boy, was this ever a mess.

"Is everything all right, young man?"

Alan was roused from his reverie by the president's question. Turning, he realized that she had probably seen quite a few hours of rough treatment herself. She was nearly covered from head to toe in sand and dust, and her jeans had rips and tears from what could only be a rough ride to the bottom herself. A cut over her eye was bleeding, so he instinctively grabbed for the cloth he knew he had in his pocket and reached forward to her forehead. "You are bleeding there a little bit."

She flinched instinctively. "Ow. Thanks, but I wonder how we are going to get out of here."

Alan replaced the cloth back into his pocket. He knew that the President was aware of International Rescue, but he was not quite sure how much to tell her. "It might be a little hard to believe, but I am an operative of International Rescue. I had found out about a plot to kidnap you, but unfortunately that organization decided to nab me at a bad moment."

Very bad in fact. Alan wondered if Fermat had been able to get a message to his brothers in time. It would make what he had to do a little bit easier but there was still the possibility that he was being monitored.

President Winter's face brightened some. "It is unfortunate that you were caught before you could report what you had found out."

Alan held up his wrist. "I do have a link home, but it will take time to get a message across."

Nodding, she chose to close her eyes. "Then by all means, go ahead and work on getting a message out. If you don't mind, I think I will rest my eyes for a few minutes while you do that."

As the president settled in against the opposite rocky wall, Alan positioned himself against the opposite wall and slid down into a sitting position. Tapping on his tele-com, he made the dial disappear and spoke quickly.

"Thunderbird Five come in. Thunderbird Five please come in."

Digital static greeted his hails, and Alan began to wonder if he had bitten off more than he could chew.

--

Gordon paced in front of the communication panel of Thunderbird Five and wondered how in the world John didn't go stir crazy. He knew John and Virgil were on their way back to Tracy Island. Scott and their dad hadn't been in radio contact since he made a scan of the Island over twenty minutes ago, despite the numerous attempts he made to contact them.

He had all but decided to try again when he heard a familiar voice come through.

"Thunderbird Five, please come in."

The communication had been loud and clear, and he instantly recognized the voice. Gordon scrambled back to his chair and activated the communications link. Alan's face came up on the video screen and a profound sense of relief came over him. "Thunderbird Five is here, and am I ever glad to see you."

Alan returned the gesture with a wry smile. "Likewise. Can you patch in Dad? I'd rather tell what happened only once."

He shook his head sadly. "No can do, I'm afraid. He's been MIA for close to a half hour now. He and Scott went out looking for you when we lost radio contact."

Alan's eyes widened in surprise. "The Hood has them?"

"I dunno Sprout, they landed at your location, they were surrounded, and then I lost them."

"Get John and Virgil on the line then," Alan insisted. "Tell them-"

Gordon hesitated. This was a situation that was going south fast and he sure didn't like the uneasy look in his brother's eyes. "Tell them what? What's wrong?"

For an answer, the view on the video screen changed and shifted until Gordon saw a black box on the rocky wall and what looked like two groups of dynamite attached to it. A timer with bright red digital numbers looked to be counting down from fifty-nine minutes.

Alan's voice came through in the background. "Tell them to hurry, will ya?"


	19. Deadline

Chapter 19 - Deadline

Onboard Thunderbird Two, John was settling in for the ride back to Tracy Island while he was waiting for Virgil to get back from dropping off Fermat. There was a lot of work to do and with Alan missing, he was wondering if there would be any other clues.

He then heard Gordon's hail and brought him up on the video screen. His brother was looking grim, and it set John on edge. "Gordon, what's wrong?"

"I've got Alan. Let me patch him through. He's got news for all of us."

John watched as Gordon hit a button, and John's view split in half. Gordon's face appeared on the left hand side, and Alan was on the right, looking jumpy and nervous.

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Alan. It's good to see you. Are you hurt?"

Alan shook his head. "Negative. I'm fine, just confined is all. Our captors have seen fit to leave us in a cave at the bottom of a very large pit."

Our captors? John looked puzzled for a moment till Alan shifted the view of his watch and he could see who was there with him.

_The President!_ That affirmed the initial report they had. "Do you know how many people are involved?"

Alan nodded. "But we have more pressing matters. Let me show you something else."

John's view of their confines shifted again, and then came to rest upon a box on the opposite wall a few feet above where they were. From what he could see, it seemed to be wired to two bundles of dynamite, and the counter seemed to be counting down from fifty-seven minutes. The scene shifted again and then resettled on Alan's nervous face. "Do you understand?"

A cold numbness washed over John. His brother was not out of danger yet. "Stay tough, Alan. We'll get the both of you out."

"FAB," came the shaky reply.

When Alan's image disappeared from view, Gordon spoke up. "There's something else. With the sensor readings from Alan's watch, Dad and Scott were able to zero in on where he was, but soon after they landed they were surrounded and now I can't get in touch with them."

John shook his head in amazement. "Those guys think of everything, don't they? Do me a favor - adjust the scanners and communicators up there to preset frequency 5."

Gordon moved to make the changes then came back on the line. "Okay, I did as you asked, but I don't see-"

John interrupted him. "Gordon, we have been monitored all along. That's the only thing that makes any sense considering the way Dad and Scott were waylaid. That frequency is a special one I cooked up with Brains. Our communicators will still work, but they won't be able to monitor us."

"Well that helps us in the short term, but won't they find out and take action?"

John shook his head. "I hope not. Dad, Scott's and Alan's lives depend on it. Route what information on the island and Alan's signal you have to Thunderbird Two. Once Virgil is back on board we will get there. After you send the information, I need for you to contact Lady Penelope. I need her to check on something for me."

Once John received the information Gordon had on the island and Alan's location, he then relayed the information he wanted to go to Lady Penelope and then signed off.

Minutes later as John was programming his watch timer to match the time left in the cave, Virgil came back on board. "I got Fermat back to his dorm room and- uh oh I know that look. What's wrong?"

"Plenty." John replied tensely. "Let's get airborne quickly and I'll fill you in."

--

Lady Penelope sat out on the sun deck on the grounds of her mansion, and picked at her late breakfast. On the side table near her sat a plate containing one of her favorites, crepes with a side of raspberry jam, but something was bothering her. Jeff had initially put her on alert when he had discovered that the Hood had been broken out of prison, but there had been no further communication ever since.

This whole setup almost reminded her of the time that the Hood had invaded Tracy Island. Not a desirable outcome in any circumstance, but she knew Jeff's boys were out there judging by the news reports that were filtering through from her own sources.

"Something bothering you, milady?"

She had not realized that Parker had stepped out on the sun deck, and his voice jolted her from her worried thoughts. "Parker, do not startle me, so! I was simply thinking was all."

Parker motioned to the video monitor stationed by the table. "I know you wanted your calls held while you are out here relaxing, but something has come up. Gordon Tracy is on the line for you using preset frequency 5. Would you like to use the monitor or your phone?"

She arched a brow as she fished around in her pants pocket and brought out her phone. "There's trouble then. I think I will use my phone. That will be all, Parker." As her manservant left, she brought the phone up to her ear. "Gordon, this is an unexpected surprise. How can I assist you?"

She listened as Gordon detailed the events that had happened so far and what they suspected happened. A growing uneasy feeling settled in her, and she made a motion to her monitor to turn it on. Earlier that morning, Penelope had remembered the follow up reports on the kidnappings, but she had been preoccupied with the news of the Hood escaping to pay it any heed.

"Let me check with a few sources and I will get back with you and John ASAP. Gordon, don't worry, if there's one thing your father and your brothers have proven to me, it's that they can hold their own. John has given us enough information and I am sure we can find Shadow Force's base of operations. Goodbye."

She quickly put her phone back in her pocket, and got her feet. There was not much time to lose. She walked back into main house and called out. "Parker! Prepare FAB-1 to be taken out as soon as possible. We are going fishing for information."

--

Alan decided to sit near the opposite wall so he could get a better look at the device above his head. What little he knew about bombs would have been better served back in school. Judging by the multitude of dynamite, it looked like the plan was to bury him and the president unless they were able to get out of the pit soon. He looked over at her and realized that she was asleep. Alan had decided against telling the president. What good would it had done anyway? Besides, the walls looked suspiciously too smooth to do any climbing, and dismantling bombs was something that he did not want to have to try unless he was forced to.

Alan watched as the timer counted down. Fifty minutes showed remaining.

_Hurry guys...please._

* * *

_Well, where have I been, let's see - my car breaks, dental appointments, work stepping up on me - ugh. Let's just say I had some catching up to do. I therefore bring a triple play update as a peace offering. Hope you enjoy, and now I go forth to catch up on my own reading. (flees)_


	20. Revelations

_Chapter 20 - Revelations_

Jeff woke up first.

Opening his eyes, it took him a moment to blink out the haze, but he was eventually able to focus on the smooth grey walls of his prison. There were three of those, and the forth seemed to be made of glass or some sort of Plexiglas. The corridors beyond the Plexiglas wall were suspiciously empty.

He made a move to get to his feet and that was when he realized that his wrists were shacked slightly above his head. The headache that he was feeling was matched with general aches and pains of being physically restrained. Looking over beside him, he found that his son scott was bound in the same manner.

Scott's eyes were closed, but Jeff could see the rise and fall of his chest. "Scott. Wake up, son."

Moaning, Scott moved his head slightly and then winced. Opening his eyes, he saw his father sitting beside him. "I guess this means that we did not make it to Thunderbird One, hunh Dad?"

Jeff shook his head. "They were expecting us. If they wanted us out of the way this badly, they went to insane depths."

"Funny you should mention depths, Jeff."

The muffled voice had taken them by surprise. Jeff turned quickly and saw the one man he did not want to see standing on the other side of the Plexiglas wall. "Hood. We meet again."

"What have you done with Alan?" Scott shouted.

The Hood smiled, and made a move to lean against the Plexiglas as if he did not have a care in the world. "You see, that would be funny if you weren't so serious with that question of yours. For once I have nothing to own up to. I am not running the show here."

Jeff couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Oh, come on now. The Hood, a glorified sidekick? I know you better than that. Somehow I don't see you being so satisfied with the role."

He found himself mildly satisfied when the Hood sneered.

The Hood then let out a laugh that was condescending at best. "Jeff, Jeff. I made a promise that I would see you again. If this plan enables me to see you suffer, then I am not so put off by it. I am more than the sum of my power after all. There has to be someone here to unlock the world leader's minds, right?"

Jeff shook his head. Things were looking pretty bleak at best. "What did you mean earlier when you said depths?"

Smirking, the Hood turned his back on them. "Didn't anyone get a chance to tell you? You are in the headquarters of Shadow Force, positioned on an undersea plateau. Enjoy your stay, because I am sure that you will not be leaving."

And with that, the Hood walked off.

Scott looked down at his bare wrist. "Looks like they stripped us clean of devices. I'm not even sure if we could get a signal out even if we had our communicators."

However, Jeff wasn't listening. His attention was drawn to a monitor near the top corner of their cells.

"Scott-"

Scott saw the haunted look in father's eyes and followed his gaze.

On the wall, a large monitor was subdivided into four quadrants. Two of them were dark, but the last two were active. One of them showed what looked like a racetrack swarmed over by emergency workers.

"So that's how they have been able to keep ahead of us," Scott growled. "But why-"

The question died on his lips when he watched the second active quadrant focus on what looked like a small cave. A hole seemed to be in the center, and two people came into frame that seemed to be at the bottom.

Jeff recognized the President of the United States but the other-

"Dad-"

"I know, Scott. It's Alan."

--

"So, what is your name?"

Alan looked up at the President's question. He didn't know how much time had passed, and at last count she was supposed to be asleep. "Shouldn't you be resting?"

President Winters laughed. "Okay, fine, I will respect your privacy. However, I do think this is the worst spot of trouble I have been in since I have announced my reelection campaign.

He laughed, and then winced as he felt his ribs protest the move. Mrs. Winters got onto her knees and crawled over.

"Well you may be from International Rescue, but it looks like you are the one with trouble. Hold on."

Before Alan could protest and point out that she really shouldn't be moving herself she had taken up a seated position beside him and was feeling his ribs. "I think you are intact. You are going to be feeling this in the morning, but nothing a good rest wouldn't cure."

Alan was not sure how to react with all of the attention. "I didn't know you were a doctor, Madame President."

She laughed. "For you, considering the roughness of our current situation, it's Mrs. Winters. I will tell you something. When you grow up with two cousins who raise and run cattle, them coming home to bruised ribs are the least of my worries when I spend summers on their ranch. So were you able to reach your organization?"

He nodded, deliberately keeping his gaze low. Since he had decided not to tell her about the bomb, he certainly wasn't going to draw attention to it.

"You are probably wondering why they threw me down here." President Winters sadly looked at the ground. The goon that threw me in here basically told me in no uncertain terms that my Vice President was one of them! Can you believe it?"

Alan felt for her. He was frustrated too. He should have went with his first instinct and told Gordon everything that had been happening to that point, then maybe his father and brother wouldn't be in that trap then maybe- aww who was he kidding. He was a big kid getting his feet wet in a situation that he had stepped full into without even knowing it.

"You look like you have your own troubles," she quietly declared.

Alan shook his head. He knew the protocols, but at the very least he could unburden his mind with part of the story. "I had a chance to stop that main guy that had kidnapped you, but-"

She shook her head firmly and interrupted. "Don't. I have a feeling that you are suffering the same thing I went through. There was first a sense of betrayal, and then disbelief. We didn't want to believe that these people could be evil."

Once Marilyn saw him nod, she continued. "Well then, we can't feel guilty can we? All we can do is hope. If your organization has taught me anything, it's that."

Alan felt a new sense of pride in what she said. "Thank you."

--

Gordon paced the length of the Thunderbird Five communication deck. He did his best to keep up with the communications, but the notices were coming in left and right about new kidnapping attempts of world leaders throughout the globe. At least the authorities were able to head the recent attempts off, but he wondered how long their luck would hold.

He was not sure what else they could possibly do. They were a rescue organization for crying out loud, but there was only so much detective work they could do and now especially since they were short handed, it was just making things all the harder.

Now John and Virgil were on a desperate rescue mission for Alan and the President of all situations. The bomb that Alan had shown them indicated that a trap was very likely, but considering that the President was there, Gordon's mind was racing with questions. If domination was truly Shadow Force's goal, why wouldn't they want her?

_Unless they already had someone on the inside working for them._ That's the only thing that made any sense.

He turned back to his monitor and watched a live network news feed showing Vice President Prescott giving an impassioned speech indicating that they would be holding strong through this crisis and imploring the president not to give up no matter where she was. _Yeah right._

Things were desperate, but with John and Virgil already on their way to Alan's coordinates and no other leads to follow-up with dad and Scott's disappearances, he had time on his hands.

Decision made, Gordon sat down in front of the main computer that he had only used hours earlier to make the search for Mr. Edwards.

_Okay Mr. Vice President, I think it's time you sign in. Are you a member of Shadow Force or not?_


	21. Race for Information

Chapter 21 – Race For Information

It had taken some doing, but Penelope was finally able to get on the road only after Tin-Tin insisted that she came along. It hadn't helped that the young woman had overheard her conversation with Gordon and was worried about what was happening with Shadow Force. She had warned Tin-Tin that what they would encounter would be rough, but the girl had refused to be swayed. In the end Penelope had agreed on the condition that the young woman would listen and follow Penelope's every request.

Soon FAB-1 pulled up outside the Silver Mark Pub, the place where John had recommended they start their inquiries. Parker turned off the engine and turned to the two women in the backseat. "Ladies, now this is a pretty rough scene. I would like the honor of getting the information that you need."

"Nonsense Parker, we are far from helpless," Lady Penelope protested, looking over at Tin-Tin. "Besides, now that Tin-Tin is old enough to know, she needs to see for herself what kind of undesirables she might run up against working for International Rescue. Also, considering the circumstances, I think her worry for Alan is going to supersede everything. But you are free to try and talk her out of it if you wish."

Sighing, Parker then shut his mouth. He knew better than to try and argue down Lady Penelope. Ninety nine point nine percent of time she had always gotten her way. Well at the very least he could do the honorable thing. He may be a respectable member of society now, but he could at least offer some protection from the very blokes that he used to run with. "Very good milady, but I will go inside first, and I will not be swayed by that argument."

Lady Penelope smiled, "Very well, Parker." Turning to Tin-Tin who at this point was staring out of the window of FAB-1 she laid a hand on the young woman's shoulder. "I know you are worried about Alan, but I need you to focus. There are men inside that place that work for the Organization that has Alan, Scott, and Jeff. They know where, and it is our job to find out what they know."

Tin-Tin's distant look concerned Penelope at first, but then she finally turned and smiled at her. "FAB. Let's go get them."

--

Jeff did what he could to work on his bonds, but it was no use. Whatever kind of clamp they had used in the walls of the cell was effective in keeping his bonds from moving anymore. He looked over at his son Scott who seemed mesmerized by the events unfolding on the monitor.

His voice bordered on the edge of anger. "Dad, these guys are playing us for all we are worth. We have fallen into their trap and Alan is in danger. What can we do?"

He could understand Scott's frustration. During the time that they were trapped on Thunderbird Five while Alan was on the island with Tin-Tin and Fermat, frustration was only one of the emotions that he had been feeling that day.

He chose his reply carefully. "We wait for our opportunity. Somehow I have a feeling that they are not through with us yet."

--

Virgil kept an eye on his instruments as he coaxed every last bit of speed he could from Thunderbird Two. Based upon the coordinates that Gordon had fed them, the deadline that had been set was tight indeed. "Time check."

"Five minutes later than when you last asked me," John replied calmly. "Look Virgil, it's not going to do either of us any good if we get too wound up. That leads to mistakes that we don't need to be making right now."

Irritated now, Virgil lashed out. "How can you stay so calm? Our brother is down in some hole with a bomb, set to obliterate both him and the US President in a little over thirty minutes. Even at maximum speed, we are going to have fifteen minutes at best to canvas an island only slightly smaller than ours. Those are odds that I don't care for."

"How, you ask? Because I faced those same odds, Virgil," John countered with a low and even voice. "In those few seconds before the Hood's missile hit Thunderbird Five, I was praying like you wouldn't believe. I knew that you guys would either get the emergency message I had broadcast or the automated alerts from Thunderbird Five. After the impact, though I was in pain, the one thing kept me from completely losing it while I was waiting was that I knew that you guys were coming to get me. Alan is going through that right now - I could see it in his eyes when I talked to him. He needs us calm and ready to get the both of them out of that hole before the bomb goes off."

With a mollified look, Virgil turned his attention back to his instruments and sensors. "Let's get there then."

--

Gordon's search into Gene Prescott's past was turning up some juicy tidbits that he was pretty sure the press would be interested in. There had been military communiqués that had been sent his way, warning him on communication chatter of the kidnappings, but he had buried them under other business. Not only that, his bank account was suspiciously growing in similar increments to Mr. Edwards. If that didn't scream corruption, he didn't know what would.

Monitoring the police communications, Gordon knew that there was already an all points bulletin out for Mr. Edwards arrest. Now he just needed to point the authorities to the information on Prescott.

Using software to mask his network identity over the web, he sent out a few key emails to the FBI and the Secret Service that should have been enough to give them a head start. Gordon then turned his attention back to the sensors and watched as Thunderbird Two closed in on the island in question.

--

"John, we are now over the island where the signal is coming from," Virgil confirmed. "How much time do we have left?"

John checked his watch again. "Twenty minutes." He looked out over the island that they were hovering over. Much of it was covered in thick vegetation, but he spotted a small area of coastline that just looked big enough. "Better land in that clearing. I see Thunderbird One down there, but we don't have much time to check anything else out. I'll grab our gear and a portable scanner."

Once Virgil had Thunderbird Two landed on the beach, they disembarked quickly. John activated his handheld scanner and took some basic readings. After a few minutes though, it was clear that they needed a new plan.

"Virgil, I can't get a solid lock on Alan's location," John growled in frustration.

Shaking his head, Virgil tried using his tele-com. "Alan? If you can hear us, please come in." Digital static greeted his attempts. "Uh Jonny, we have a problem."

"No kidding," John muttered as they proceeded forward towards the rock formations through the forest. As they went, the readings changed to indicate that Alan was within the rock, but how could that be? The walls looked to be of solid rock.

John checked his watch again and looked at the timer. Eleven minutes and counting.

Time was running out.


	22. Contact

Chapter 22 - Contact

While the President had her eyes closed, Alan Tracy was pacing the length of the pit that they were in. Now that she was truly distracted, he looked up at the timer on the bomb and didn't like what he was seeing.

The timer was closing in on the eleven minute mark. He knew that his brothers were on their way, but yet he couldn't fight the growing unease that they were going to be too late.

That was when he heard a burst of digital static from his tele-com. Alan stopped his pacing and looked down at the instrument on his wrist. On the small video screen, he saw bits and pieces of a picture along with a partial picture. It was then that Alan started playing with every setting that he could get his hands on.

Alan continued his pacing as he worked until finally he heard the most welcome of voices. "Alan, can you read me? It's John."

He took a steadying breath before her replied. "John? You're a welcome voice. Please tell me you two are close to us."

The image on his watch finally solidified, and Alan could see John's worried face with trees and other scenery rushing past him. "Alan! We've landed on the island where you are, but there are so many rock formations we can't tell where you are. The scanners are claiming that you and the president are inside the rock. We need more to go on."

Alan's gaze never wavered from the timer above him as he thought hard. He had been conscious initially when Mr. Edwards had brought him in, and that was when he remembered one crucial detail. "John, they brought me through a hologram type of doorway. I don't remember on which side. Try scanning for the projector equipment or something, just hurry!"

He heard a derisive snort come from the communicator and Virgil's voice in the background. "I knew something would come out of all that money spent on our baby brother's education. Adjusting for projection equipment - aha! Found it! Ten feet straight ahead!"

John spoke hurriedly. "We've got a fix. Hold on Alan, we'll get there."

--

It had been a busy afternoon in the Silver Mark Pub, but as Parker entered the main room, he noted that there were still a lot of people inside, and some of them he immediately recognized. Being a thief in prison, one tended to make many friends with dubious reputations, and some of them had long memories. Parker silently prayed their memories had given out, but as he led Lady Penelope and Tin-Tin past one table, he heard a familiar voice nab at him.

"Well, if it isn't old Nosey Parker himself."

Parker cringed at the use of his nickname. Men had called him that due to the unique shape of his nose, and he made sure to let them know when he objected to the use of his name with a well placed haymaker punch. However, keeping in mind that this was a mission for information, Parker took a calming breath before turning on the man that had made the comment.

The man in question was Flint Masters, the explosives expert that had helped himself to one of the most secure vaults in history in the tower of London close to five years ago. He was older than Parker had initially remembered, and Flint's hair had enough gray streaks mixed in with the brown to illustrate the point. Dressed in a leather jacket and jeans, Flint looked like he had been out riding motorcycles. Parker remembered that Flint used to obsess over them all the time. Judging by the way Flint was leaning back in his chair and the pitcher of beer on his table however, he looked like he was one his way to getting smashed.

Parker kept his voice cool and even. "I haven't gone by that name since I got out of the klink."

Flint's smile revealed a few missing teeth. "Gone all fine and upstanding on us, have we? Or have you become a mere 'servant' to the ladies here?"

"What I am is none of your business," Parker countered cooly. "Now on the other hand, I have a few missing friends that I am worried about. Considering your profession, you might know where they are."

Flint's smile never wavered. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Oh come now, blowing things up just for the fun of it seems a little over the top, doesn't it?" Parker inquired, leaning against the table until her was nose to nose with Flint. "The ladies here will now ask you some questions, and I expect you to answer them, or you will answer to me."

Lady Penelope stepped forward and gave Parker a quick glance. "That'll do, Parker." She then turned to Flint. "We have information that operatives of Shadow Force frequently come here. They have kidnapped three members of International Rescue, and we need to know where they are."

"International Rescue?" Flint echoed. "I know nothing about International Rescue or Shadow Force or anything else you might ask me, so if you will excuse me-"

"He's lying."

Penelope turned at the obvious anger in Tin-Tin's voice. She tried putting a hand on the young girl's shoulder, but she shrugged it off.

Stepping forward, Tin-Tin grabbed for her pendant and looked at Flint.

The man by this point was growing panicked and he tried to scramble out of his chair. "Hey, I don't have to say a word. Get her away from me!"

--

John and Virgil quickly followed the readings to a particular rock formation through the trees. Feeling around the perimeter, they walked straight through what seemed to be a solid wall. Once they adjusted their eyes to the low level of light in the cave, they saw the hole a few feet in front of them.

They both rushed forward and set their equipment down. John ventured a look into the hole and saw the relieved face of Alan staring back at him. "We're here. Get the president ready. We're a little pressed for time."

"No kidding," Virgil muttered as he uncoiled the length of rope they brought and formed a quick loop and knotted the end. He leaned over the hole and called out. "Rope's coming down. Help the president into the rope."

Alan nervously looked at the timer. He didn't need to be told twice - after all the timer was just closing in on the eight minute mark. "FAB."

President Winters opened her eyes and slowly got to her feet. "I assume these are our rescuers?"

Grabbing the rope, he motioned to her. "We don't have much time. There is a bomb attached near the top of this pit, and it is set to go off in less than eight minutes unless we get out of here."

She nervously looked up and finally noticed the bomb in question. "You should have told me earlier. What do we do?"

Alan answered her question by looping the rope under her arms and with a quick check, cinched it to make sure it was a solid connection. He looked back up at his brothers. "Okay, haul away!"

Virgil pulled hard, and President Winters was able to climb up easily.

The ground trembled beneath Alan's feet, which made no sense, since that was the only bomb that he could see. Either these Organization people were making doubly sure this trap would catch them all, or this island was getting very unstable. "Guys, hurry. This place is coming down!"

John looked down and then back at the entrance. "Virg, get the President back to Thunderbird Two. I'll get Alan and meet you there."

"John-" Virgil protested.

He turned around in no uncertain terms. "There's now only five minutes left. Your first priority is to get the President out of the danger zone." John then stepped closer and spoke low. "I can get Alan out, don't worry so much."

Virgil reluctantly backed away with a scowl on his face. "See you two on the other side."

And with that, he turned and urged the President back towards the entrance of the cave.


	23. Time for Action

Chapter 23 - Time for Action

John quickly grabbed up the rope and then turned back to the pit. He threw one side of the rope down to Alan and called out, "Are you sure that you aren't ready to come back full time? You're missing all of this danger and excitement, after all."

Alan snorted as he tied the rope firmly around his waist. "I have had enough danger and excitement this past week to fill my quota, thanks."

"Hold on. We're gonna make this quick." John pulled at the rope, bringing Alan up inch by inch until finally he was able to grab on to the edge of the pit. With a little leverage, John helped him up and they both ran quickly for the entrance.

Just as they reached the outside, one last explosion ripped through the air. John pushed Alan to the ground and then fell to the ground on top of him.

For precious seconds debris rained down on them, until finally Alan looked up. "We're alive?"

John slowly got to his feet and checked his watch. 00:00 flashed back at him. "If we had cut that any closer-"

Virgil rushed over to where they were. "Are you two all right?"

"We're fine, Virgil," John replied as he helped Alan to his feet. "The President?"

"Is fine," Virgil finished, pointing to the person in question a few feet behind him. "We need to get the president to safety, but what then?"

"I'm waiting for a call back from Gordon or Lady Penelope," John replied firmly.

Leading the rest of them back to the clearing, John looked at Thunderbird One, and then looked back at his Alan. "When's the last time you flew the flight simulator for One?"

Alan shrugged. "Logged thirty hours during this past spring break, why?"

John pointed to Thunderbird One. "We could use the support, and since Scott is not here-"

Alan nodded understandingly. "I can do it. Let's get going."

"Excellent. I need you to ferry the President to the nearest US carrier or destroyer in friendly waters, and then head straight back here, got it?"

Alan saluted and then motioned to President Winters. "FAB. Madame President, your ride awaits."

Virgil smirked as he watched Alan help the President into Thunderbird One. "Are you sure he's ready for this?"

John hooked his brother by the neck and steered him towards Thunderbird Two. "He better be, because we need all of the help we can get."

--

Flint Masters was not a man to be trifled with normally, but the sight of the girl with the weird eyes was unsettling to say the least. He tried scrambling to his feet, but found that his body wouldn't move, and it was getting harder and harder to take a breath.

Lady Penelope watched in horror as the man that had been the object of their interrogation grow deathly pale. If she did not do something, the object of their interrogation would be dead. She forced her voice to be as hard as she could muster. "TIN-TIN! Please!"

She watched anxiously as she saw a tear slide down Tin-Tin's cheek. The young woman's eyes went back to normal, and she would have collapsed if not for Parker, who quickly moved to catch her.

Flint collapsed to the table, breathing heavily and clutching at his throat. Penelope leaned in low. They had one last chance to get the information they needed. "Where is Shadow Force's headquarters?"

Flint glared up at her with barely concealed hatred. "Here are the coordinates-"

As they left the pub, Lady Penelope guided Tin-Tin into FAB-1 and quickly motioned Parker to drive off. Tin-Tin seemed to have recovered from her ordeal, but she wondered if the girl had been thinking straight.

As if the question had been posed out loud, Tin-Tin replied. "I was Lady Penelope, believe me. I was just worried about Alan is all."

Startled, Penelope realized what happened. In some way, she had to give Tin-Tin credit. Kyrano had warned her upfront about how powerful his daughter was, but reading minds was a new one on her. "Well, worried or not, that is no excuse to abuse one's gift." However, she had to restrain herself from congratulating the girl on effectively stopping the man in his tracks. "We needed information from him, and luckily he was able to give it, but you must promise never to go that far ever again, understood?"

Thoroughly chastised, Tin-tin looked at the floorboards of FAB-1. "I understand."

Lady Penelope touched a control on the back of the seat in front of her. A panel slid down, revealing a touch screen computer. She pressed an option and spoke her commands. "Emergency Protocol, secure communications, preset frequency 5."

The computer spoke as it complied with the command. "Acknowledged."

"FAB-1 to Thunderbird Two, come in."

--

John and Virgil was settling in on Thunderbird Two when they heard the hail. "FAB-1 to Thunderbird Two, come in."

Penelope was reporting in. John checked the communication panel and noticed that Lady Penelope had used the encrypted channel that he and brains had calculated. "We read you loud and clear, FAB-1. Did you find out anything from the Silver Mark Pub?"

"Boys, I have coordinates for you. I'm transmitting them now."

Moments later, Virgil heard a beep from Thunderbird Two and checked his flight controls. "Coordinates received Lady Penelope. You are a lifesaver."

"All part of the service," she replied, "Now go and take Shadow Force down."

--

"FAB."

Lady Penelope smiled when she heard the familiar sign off. She pressed a button, and the panel slid back into place.

She heard Tin-Tin ask the question that had been on her own mind. "Lady Penelope, do you think they will be in time?"

To answer her, Penelope leaned over and put a comforting arm around Tin-Tin's shoulders. "I have faith in Jeff, and I know he has taught those boys well. Now it's our turn to have faith in them."


	24. Underwater Journey

Chapter 24 - An Underwater Journey

From the monitor in their cell, Scott and Jeff watched as both the president and Alan were both rescued from the hole seconds before the camera was destroyed.

Looking over at his father, Scott could see a look of panic in his eyes. The pit had exploded only minutes after Alan had been rescued from it, and even he knew that it would have been a very close shave. "They made it, dad," Scott breathed, "I know they did."

Jeff slowly nodded, his gaze never leaving the monitor. "I wonder why we haven't seen anymore information though."

Scott then heard a noise and looking at their Plexiglas window, saw the Hood standing outside their cell. His stance held the same bravado as when he first stopped by their cell. "Well Jeff, it looks like your family is more resourceful than I thought."

Scott smiled. He sure wasn't going to give the Hood the satisfaction of rising to the bait. "You don't know how much trouble you have started. Shadow Force will go down hard."

"Oh, I'm sure they will," the Hood agreed, "but the question is, who will come out on top?"

Before either Jeff or Scott could answer that question, the Hood laughed and then walked away.

--

Thunderbird One soon showed back up at the island. Once he landed, Alan got out and boarded Thunderbird Two. He made his way to the main deck where he found Virgil and John in deep conversation with Gordon via the video communication screen.

Virgil turned and greeted him. "Welcome back. Were you able to get the President safely tucked away?"

He nodded as he took a seat beside his brothers. "There was a US carrier not far from here. I had a quick talk with the Captain and made the drop-off."

John smiled. "Well that's one problem down. Now let's think about this. We know that Dad and Scott traced something to this island and were taken. The coordinates that Lady Penelope managed to get indicate a point in the water about five hundred miles from our current position."

Alan frowned. "I took the liberty of asking the captain if there had been anything unusual events or anomalies detected in the area. He had stated that there was quite a bit of submersible traffic detected in the immediate area."

From the communication screen, Gordon sputtered. "Submarines? But there are no bases in that area."

"Well, what if what we are looking for is under the sea? It would make sense," Alan reasoned, "There isn't anything else left on this island that indicates that they were there other than the goons that threw me in and the equipment used to disguise the place. There had to have been quite a few guys here to take down the likes of dad and Scott."

"It's a better hypothesis than what we already have," Gordon acknowledged. "John, let's get working on a scan of that area."

"FAB" John acknowledged.

Gordon worked on the scans twice over with John, and the results came out to be the same. "Are you sure of these coordinates, John? All I read in that area is open ocean. The scans are not penetrating undersea. You don't think they're cloaked, do you?"

John nodded. "Those coordinates were provided by Lady Penelope and they make sense. With Shadow Force disappearing in this area, trapping Alan and the president on this island like that and the lack of equipment, this was a trap that was meant to get all of us."

Virgil was frustrated. "Okay, so fine, we know what they are up to. How do we get the drop on them without tipping the rest of our hand?"

Alan piped up. "Guys, we are over thinking this. If we can catch them off guard with a 'distraction', one or two of us can get brought in and the rest can follow."

"That's the first amount of sense you've had spro- I mean Alan," Gordon hedged when his brother glared at him. "What kind of 'distraction' do you have in mind?"

--

A small motorboat settled over the one spot in the ocean and cut their engine. Wearing caps low on their heads, Alan and Virgil dropped anchor and moved to grab a large net. It looked like they were preparing to put out the net for a day of fishing.

About ten minutes later, the water around them rippled. A small submarine slowly surfaced a few feet away from them, rocking their tiny boat even more than the ripples.

The men watched the scene as two men dressed in military garb rose from the top hatch and pointed guns at them. They both looked similar with dark hair and clean shaven scowling faces, but only one of them spoke. "You two are trespassing over private waters. Bring up your fishing net and leave or we will be forced to make you leave."

Smiling, Virgil tipped up his cap and stared the two gentlemen down. "The last time I checked, these were open waters, gents. No one owns land around here unless you happen to live underwater. You guys don't happen to have gills do you?"

Alan snorted in laughter, which apparently infuriated the two even more. The two military garbed men scowled, and the one who issued the earlier threat spoke again. "You two think you are a bunch of comedians? You two will die!"

"I think the only ones that are going down are you two!"

The voice had come from behind them, so they were surprised when rough hands gripped each of the thugs and pulled them overboard.

Alan tossed his cap aside and looked on with some amusement as John poked his head back up from where he had given the two thugs an intentional ducking. "You doing okay, John?"

John grinned as he wiped water away from his eyes. "Gordon makes this look way too easy. Good thing you two distracted them long enough for me to jump off our boat and swim around them. Get over here Alan, because I'm not sure what else we will find on this sub."

Virgil tossed his own cap away. "I'll get the boat back to Thunderbird Two. Good luck and I will be waiting for your signal."


	25. Infiltration

Chapter 25 - Infiltration

Alan climbed on board the small submarine and down the main hatch. He paused only to grab for the hatch and closed it behind him, turning the handle to seal it tight. Once he climbed down into the main area of the sub, he followed John the short distance to the control area.

The area was small, which just barely housed two seats, a control panel, and something that looked like a navigational console with a steering column. John had already claimed the seat in front of the navigational console.

"You think we can drive this thing?" Alan asked as he sat down in the seat beside John.

"Alan, let's just say those simulators that Brains made for you to practice on got their start somewhere," John replied with a grin. He then contacted Gordon via Tele-com. "Gordon, we've commandeered a ride. Can you patch into the systems in here?"

From the tele-com screen, Gordon chuckled. "Leave it to you two to come up with a distraction like this. Need a hand with the navigation?"

John looked over at Alan and grinned. "Nah, I think we have that aspect well in hand. I just need you to be able to track us so that you can feed any course corrections to Virgil."

"FAB"

John then turned his attention to the console in front of him. "Okay, we have acceleration and direction. You have sensor readings on your console, Alan?"

Alan nodded.

"Excellent," John replied, "Let's find ourselves an underwater base, shall we?"

It took a few false starts and coordinating information with each other, but soon John and Alan had managed to get the sub underwater and moving forward.

Through the front windows of the sub, Alan watched as the water around them turned darker shades of blue until they found it hard to see. He searched the panel in front of him and found controls for the forward lights and flipped them on. When he did, he was amazed at what he saw. "John, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Yeah."

Below them in the distance they could just make out a series of domes that seemed to be setting on top of some sort of underwater plateau.

"I think we've just found where Shadow Force is hiding," John declared.

Alan watched in fascination as John steered the sub closer to the domes before them. "It looks like there are three domes, John. Look at that tube jutting out of that one on the far end. It looks like a docking area."

"So it does. Contact Gordon and make sure he's reading our coordinates."

Alan sat back and contacted Gordon. "Calling Thunderbird Five. We are not that far away from the base now - got the coordinates we sent, Gordon?"

Static greeted Alan's declaration and he nearly panicked. "Gordon?"

Gordon's voice eventually made its way through the static, but it was far from clear. "Sorry guys, there is some massive interference coming from that place. I did manage to get the specific coordinates from your ride. I'll go ahead and signal Virgil to follow you. Go ahead and for heavens sakes, will you two be careful?"

Alan shook his head. "What are you trying to do, become the new mother hen of the family?"

Gordon hedged for a moment before declaring. "No, it's just that it won't leave anyone to come get me when my rotation is over. Now let's get this plan off the ground, okay? Thunderbird Five out."

Grinning, John shook his head as he guided the sub to and through the docking tube. "Sometimes Gordon is such a brat that he even makes you look good."

Scowling, Alan punched him in the arm. "Can we focus here? We are not exactly on friendly turf you know."

A serious look came over John's face. "Believe me, I know it all too well, Sprout. Dad and Scott are depending on us, so we better get inside and fast."

He turned his attention back to the wheel, and soon John had the sub maneuvered through the docking tube. The amount of light around them changed, making the water brighter all around them "Alan, check the sensors."

Alan checked the panel one last time. "It looks like we are inside the dome- we seem to be in a docking area. It should be safe to surface."

John adjusted the controls, and their view soon shifted until they broke the surface of the water. Once he had everything shut down, John grabbed for one of the weapons that he had liberated from the goons that he had thrown overboard. Passing it to Alan, he made a move to stand up. "You cover my back. What we need to find is a computer terminal, and then we can get this party started."

Alan and John quietly climbed out of the small sub and were able to make the jump to a small docking platform. The platform connected with a main walkway, and they wasted no time running down the walkway towards the far side of the dome. Alan felt relieved to find that no one was around in the immediate area for now, so they were able to traverse the whole dock without worry of discovery.

Moment's later, he spotted what he thought John was looking for. "I think that's what you are looking for over there."

Alan pointed over what looked like a monitor screen inset into a wall. John grinned and walked over to the unit, studying it carefully. "Yes, I think this is exactly what we need."

From his pocket, John withdrew a small metal rectangular device. "Give me a minute and I will see if I can get this thing to reveal its innermost secrets."

Alan watched in awe as John placed the device just slightly below the monitor and then set to work, pressing a button on the box. The monitor lit up, displaying dizzying amounts of letters and numbers until it settled on a menu that looked to have options to access different parts of the facility. "Pretty snazzy touch screen setup; now let's see if we can get into their network."

John pressed a few options on the touch screen and then pressed the button on his box again. The monitor started its dance again, flashing even more numbers.

He heard Alan ask. "Where can I get a box like that?"

"No where. I helped Brains develop it, especially after the fiasco where the Hood hacked our systems." John paused for a moment as a shudder passed through him. "This little beauty houses a few different bars of code in a few different computer languages. Some of it I came up with, some of this is Brain's doing and – ah, I think we have what we came for."

While John had been talking, the monitor had finally stopped flashing the number sequences and had settled on a static image that looked like a map of the complex. "Bingo!"

Alan who had been looking over his shoulder grinned. "When I get back into the thick of things, I want to spend a rotation with you. You get the good toys."

John arched a brow at the comment. "You think so? Scott seems to think you would benefit from a mountain climbing experience and going with him in Thunderbird One a few times."

Alan shuddered at the thought. Sure he loved most sports, but "Mountain climbing, as in on a mountain?"

John laughed quietly. "That's what I thought. Come on, I found the area where they are holding dad and Scott. We better get moving if we want our plan to work."


	26. Captured

_Chapter 26 - Captured_

Alan held on to his weapon tightly as he followed John through the corridors of the complex. From the outside it had not seemed so massive, but now that they were actually going through the corridors themselves, it felt like they had been traveling for miles.

They had only come across one or two of the guards on their journey, which they were able to easily evade.

The waiting was getting on his nerves - Alan had to know. "John, how much further do we have to go?"

"A couple more feet," John promised. After taking one last connector, they finally reached what had been labeled as the holding area on the map they had seen. Before them, there stood two rows of doors. "You check that row and I will check the other."

Alan nodded his agreement and they spread out.

He began checking and found one empty cell after another. Losing hope, Alan was beginning to think it was a lost cause until he heard John's shout.

"I've found them! Over here!"

--

Scott had fallen asleep earlier and Jeff had nearly done the same when he heard a noise from the outside of the cell. Opening his eyes, he was shocked to find Alan and John standing in front of the door of their cell.

A sense of relief filled Jeff. "Can I say that I am very glad to see you two?"

"You can," Alan replied, "but you might want to hold that thought until we get through this lock. Shield your eyes!"

Jeff averted his eyes from the door, and he could hear the sounds of a weapon cutting through the Plexiglas door. Moments later the sound died off and he turned back around to find that they had made it in and were both working on their restraints.

Scott woke up in the meanwhile and smirked. "Took you guys long enough."

John rolled his eyes as he worked on Scott's restraints. "Oh sure, blame us for having to make a few stops along the way. We could have left you here, you know."

"Boys, they have been monitoring you all along," Jeff said.

"We know dad," John replied. "We figured it out and kept most of our plans low key because of it."

"What we need to do is get out of here!" Alan declared as he finished cutting his dad free.

With their help, Scott and Jeff were soon on their feet and they soon moved to leave the cell.

They had made it a few steps into the hallway when they saw a group of armed men advanced towards them.

Judging by the man leading the group, Jeff knew they were in trouble. He motioned to Alan. "Alan, drop your weapon."

--

General X stood at the head of his group and smiled broadly at four men in front of them. These were the infamous Thunderbirds that the Hood had told him about? Preposterous. He kept his voice light. "Gentlemen, please. I wouldn't want you to leave without experiencing our hospitality."

The one he knew as Alan Tracy stepped forward. "Yeah right, and I suppose your version of hospitality is to have the Hood try and scramble our brains."

He laughed and sneered. "Such impertinence. We have secured the sub that you had stolen from two of my men above the water. The Hood is also working on the world leaders we have here, and our man in Washington is poised to take over the White House. What do you have to say to that?"

General X was puzzled when Alan looked down at his watch and then back up at him with a grin. "I think that you will have an answer to that question in about thirty seconds."

He stood his ground, not sure whether to believe such a brash statement.

Seconds later General X got his answer when the ground rumbled underneath his feet.

--

Virgil was nervous when the idea was first pitched that he follow Alan and John in Thunderbird Four. He did not have as much time in training on four for one thing, and for another the plan was quite involved. Gordon had reassured him that it could be done, so he agreed.

That was why he was now underwater around the enemy base, planting small charges around the bases of each of three domes at twenty foot intervals. They shouldn't be enough to damage the dome, but the name of the game here was distraction. They needed to be able to commandeer one of the larger subs to escape with, because after all, they had the dignitaries to free, not to mention get Dad and Scott out of there.

That meant that he had to secure the way out of that base and fast.

Quickly detonating the charges, Virgil then pushed Thunderbird Four to it's limit's speeding to the far side of the domes and flipped a switch on one of Brain's newer inventions, a portable sonar scrambler. The small box emitted a high pitched signal, intent on masking the sonar signature of Four. If it worked, anyone who was nosey enough to scan around for him should only find a very large ocean fish instead.

Virgil waited for a response. If anything was going to happen, now was the time.

Minutes later, the sensors inside Four screamed as he counted at least three subs speeding out of the tube on the far dome. They were heading far away from him, and Virgil breathed a sigh of relief. He sped Four to the far dome at full throttle and quickly found his way to the tube leading inside the dome.

Virgil slowly maneuvered his craft through the tube until he found himself in the docking area that Gordon had told him about. He slowed Thunderbird Four to a halt, then he proceeded to use the video scanners on the area above the water. From the scan, there was one sub left in the dock area, which suited their plans, but there were two guards patrolling the nearby dock.

Grinning, he flipped a switch on another of Brains' newer inventions. "Say goodnight, boys."

A long metal pole extended out from the top of Thunderbird Four. It quietly slid above water, and Virgil watched it's progress on the monitor. The two guards turned around in some surprise as they regarded the intrusion, but before they could react, a bolt of electrical energy shot out, striking both guards square on.

The amazed guards fell to the ground in a heap. Surfacing his craft, Virgil made a move to exit four while making one crucial communication. He turned the dial on his tele-com and quickly spoke into it. "Thunderbird Four to entry team. The dock is secure. The rest is up to you."

He heard a quick and hushed "FAB" in reply. Virgil was dying to know what was happening on the other side of the complex, but instead made a move for the hatch. It was all part of the plan they went over, but there was still part of him that hated this plan with a passion.


	27. Escape

Chapter 27 - Escape

Alan smiled in satisfaction as General X looked flustered. The rumbling they were feeling beneath their feet came in short bursts, and that was when he noticed that the whole group standing behind the general was beginning to get antsy. _This could work to our advantage._

He elbowed Scott to quickly get his attention and then quickly mouthed. "Follow my lead."

Scott nodded quickly, and then Alan turned his attention to the General. "It's over. Our team has this place surrounded. Felt those tremors? They are drilling in this very minute to come and get us. Give it up."

"I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't want to face our team even on your best day," Scott sneered. "So what's it going to be?"

General X remained defiant, choosing to point a finger at them. The order came like a whip crack. "Attack!"

Each of the Tracy men quickly ducked as they were fired upon, but immediately went on the counter-offensive, lunging at the group head on.

Jeff and Scott had managed to disarm them while John and Alan worked on subduing the others. A few well placed punches later and they had turned the tide. Scott stood and dusted himself off, looking back at the groaning group of men on the ground that they had just defeated. "Let's get out of here before we encounter anymore surprises."

Alan stood and felt his ribs ache in protest. It had been quite a busy day, but it wasn't over yet. "Sounds good to me. I'll signal to Virgil to find the dignitaries and we are out of here."

--

After Alan sent the signal to Vigil, he and his family ran down the corridor trying to reach the dock to rendezvous with Virgil and the dignitaries they were rescuing. It would be almost standing room only inside of a submarine, but they did not have much choice in the matter.

They reached a juncture point in a hallway that joined two of the domes when Alan felt a weird sensation wash over him. He heard the concerned voices of his father and his brothers around him, but couldn't utter a sound.

Something about this seemed familiar in a bad way. There had been only one other time he had felt this weird.

Alan quickly got the picture when he saw that in the corridor in front of them, the Hood stood and regarded them all with an amused expression. "You know, it took me all of this time to find out how the General has protected this place from my power. The British government really should keep a lid on their dampening technology."

He struggled against the power that was holding him back, but it was as if his body was made of stone. Losing his balance, he then toppled forward to the ground clutching at his neck. The Hood was apparently trying one of his old tricks by trying to choke the life out of him.

Darkness fringed the edges of his vision, and Alan knew time was running out.

--

"Alan!"

Scott heard his father's frantic voice behind him cry out, but then was silenced almost instantly. He looked back quickly to find that his dad was struggling to move. It was almost as if he was glued to the floor.

Turning back to Alan, Scott couldn't help but feel a wave of helplessness wash over him. His father had recounted what had happened in the Bank of London all of those years ago, and Scott had seen the haunted look in his eyes when he recounted how the Hood had used his power to try and choke the life out of his brother.

Desperate for ideas, Scott looked over at John and noticed that he was looking around the hallway.

--

John felt frustrated at the scene before them. This man had caused his family so much pain. His father stood there either in shock or under the control of the Hood, for he did not make any move or effort forward. He could not tell which, but there was no time to look for nuances. If they did not stop the Hood from choking Alan, he would surely die down here.

Looking around the hallway past their attacker, John looked for something, anything they could use to get the Hood to stop attacking their brother.

Then he had it. About two feet away from them looked to be an emergency release valve of some sort. Visually following the flow of the pipe, he realized that it looped around the ceiling and end of the pipe pointed downward just behind the Hood.

John cast a quick look over at Scott. He could tell that his brother was also trying to come up with a plan to save Alan. Keeping his movements as small and as unnoticeable as possible, he decided to try and buy some time.

From his vantage point, Scott was slightly closer and had a better shot at getting to the valve than he did.

--

Scott noticed that John seemed to be going with an idea. He caught his brother's look for only a moment, and saw that his eyes were fixed on a spot on the wall just ahead of him. He followed John's gaze until he spotted the emergency release valve on the wall near him. Putting two and two together, he realized what John was trying to drive him at.

So they had a plan of action, but what he needed now was a distraction. He did not know how much power the Hood had left at his disposal and frankly he did not want to find out. He looked back at John and quickly mouthed the words - _distract him._

--

Distract him? John caught the words all right. He had been thinking along those same terms, but how do you distract a sociopath bent on gaining revenge on your family by any means possible?

Recalling the information that he had gained from Arianna and his own research, he decided the direct approach would be the best and only way to do it. Stepping forward slightly, John looked at the Hood and tried his best to keep the fear he was feeling out of his voice. "You are a coward, Belagant. You've attacked me on Thunderbird Five, you've attacked Alan in the Bank of London - all in the name of getting back at our father for something that he did not do."

The Hood looked at him with the utmost contempt on his face. "I am the Hood. I swore that I would see Jeff Tracy suffer for leaving me there in that collapsed diamond mine to rot, and what better way to make him suffer? I take away the family that is so precious to him."

From the corner of his eye, John saw that Scott had started inching forward towards the valve. He turned his attention back to the Hood and decided to up the ante. "To rot?? I see you standing in front of us alive, Belagant. It may not have been our father that rescued you, but you survived in that mine. It was by that little grace I suppose, since you were the one that put the mine workers in danger in the first place. I wonder how safe that mine truly was and-"

A burning pain began at the front of John's mind, and he nearly passed out from the exertion on his brain. _So this is what it feels like to be attacked by the Hood._

His vision wavered slightly, and then John fell to his knees as he noticed that Alan had stopped moving on the floor. Were they too late?

--


	28. Saving A Life

Chapter 28 - Saving a Life

Scott felt his heart drop when John nearly collapsed to the ground beside Alan. They were out of time - he had to move and move fast. With one desperate lunge, Scott rushed the remaining distance to reach the release valve.

The Hood turned at the sudden movement and roared. "What are you-"

Scott quickly turned the valve, not sure of what would be released from the pipe just behind the Hood. He did get his answer quick enough when he saw highly pressured steam escape from the vent.

The Hood screamed while trying desperately to avoid what looked to be extremely hot steam. Scott inwardly winced as he saw the man whirl and flail in obvious pain, and parts of the Hood's face looked beet red. After many tortuous seconds of the painful dance, the Hood finally turned and fled down the corridor, ignoring the world around him.

After the Hood fled, Scott quickly shut off the valve and ran back to his dad. Putting both of his hands on his dad's shoulders, Scott gave him a slight shake. "Dad, dad, please snap out of it!"

Scott watched as his father blinked his eyes furiously, and then finally focused on him. "Scott - the Hood - I couldn't move."

He nodded understandingly. "We better check on John and Alan."

Turning, the two men checked on John first, who had managed to stand back up and was shaking his head. His eyes were wide and fixed on Alan. "Scott, he looks like he's not breathing."

Scott dropped to his knees and checked for Alan's breathing, and then put two fingers on the side of his brother's neck. "You're right. There's no pulse either. John-"

John got back down on his knees opposite from Scott before he could even request the help. "I'm on it."

--

It took Virgil only five minutes to find where the missing dignitaries were being held. After freeing and reviving them, he led them back to the dock area where he had them board the remaining Shadow Force sub to wait. He had as a precaution electronically sealed the tube that led to the surrounding ocean so that the other craft could not return, but the quicker they could get this done, the better.

It was then that he checked his tele-com and realized that it had been nearly a half hour since Alan sent the signal for him. Simply put, they should have been back by now.

A rumble resounded through the area and it made Virgil nervous – either those charges he set had an unintended effect, or those idiots in the other subs were stupid enough to try and break back in. Neither possibility did their options any good.

He tuned his tele-com into the secondary frequency of the others, intent on warning them on how much time they had left. However, when Virgil heard his brother's frantic voices, he knew something had gone horribly wrong.

--

Gordon paced the confines of the communication deck of Thunderbird Five like a caged animal. He didn't know how John could stand it up here. Over the past few hours, he tried distracting himself by reading a science fiction novel that he had found in his brother's bookshelf, but even that was no good.

The advantage to be able to monitor everything meant that he knew that Scott, Alan, and their dad had been attacked callously by the Hood.

The disadvantage was not being down there able to help.

He knew that Scott and John were performing CPR on their youngest brother now, and it had been close to three minutes already. Silently praying, Gordon kept listening to the communications, listening for any sign of life from Alan.

_Come on Alan. Come back to us and I promise, no more calling you sprout_.

--

John performed the rescue breathing while Scott performed chest compressions. They had been working for close to five minutes now and had already checked Alan at least once. He was starting to give up hope when during their next check Scott exclaimed. "I've got a pulse!"

Jeff was beside them in an instant. "Alan? Please, open your eyes son."

Seconds later and much to their relief, Alan did open his eyes and winced as he brought up a hand to massage his throat. His voice sounded gravely. "Oww."

John let out a breath in relief before he felt another rumble, this one stronger than the last. He used his tele-com. "John to Virgil, what's your status?"

Virgil's impatient voice greeted his hail. "I have the dignitaries loaded, but this place is coming down. I estimate we have about ten minutes at best before one of these domes starts to crack and we do not want to be around when that happens. Hurry!"

John acknowledged Virgil's "FAB." He turned back to see that Scott and their father had lifted him up, and each man was bracing Alan under the shoulders. "We've got ten minutes, dad."

"Lead the way John, and we will be right behind you," his dad ordered.

They made it to the docking area in record time. While Scott and Virgil boarded Thunderbird Four, Jeff and John boarded the other sub with Alan. Jeff made sure the dignitaries were settled in, and then settled in a seat next to Alan. His son was pale, and considering what he had been through, it had been way too close.

John settled into the pilot's seat and called out. "All right, this is going to be a bumpy ride, so you guys better brace yourselves."

Jeff held onto his seat and held on as John submerged the sub and followed Thunderbird four out of the dock.


	29. Home Again

Chapter 29 – Home Again

It had taken some maneuvering to escape the remaining Shadow Force subs in the area. Once Thunderbird Four and the procured Shadow Force sub had left the dock and cleared the loading tube, the other Shadow Force subs started converging on their location. It was only after the domes started collapsing that their pursuers lost interest and quickly fled the scene.

After getting back to the island where they left their vehicles, Virgil and Scott took off to deliver the world leaders to their respective countries while Jeff and John took Alan to be checked out by a doctor.

When they all finally met back at Tracy Island hours later, Jeff ordered Alan to the infirmary, and Scott and John escorted them there under Alan's protests.

They reached the infirmary, and Jeff steered Alan over to one of the beds. "All right, you need to get settle down and get some rest."

Reluctantly Alan sat down on the infirmary bed. "Dad, come on, I'm fine. The doctor in London said as much."

John shook his head with a frown. "Not the way I heard it. The doctor said the bruising around your throat will take time to heal and would require you to rest and recover. In addition with the bruised ribs and assorted contusions you had already received from your drop into the cave, the doctor wanted to keep you for at least one night so in short, you're lucky that we were able to talk the doctor into letting you come home."

Alan tried glaring at him, but John just laughed. "Don't even try it, sprout. I've had experience - just ask Scott."

Scott glared at him and John pointed. "You see? I've luckily grown immune to his glare."

Jeff couldn't help but laugh at his sons' antics. "Okay you two, cut it out, your brother needs his rest-"

A familiar voice sounded through the infirmary, cutting him off. "Thunderbird Five to Tracy Island, come in."

Scott shook his head with a bemused smile. "That would be Gordon ready to pounce on you, Sprout." He touched

a control on a nearby wall and spoke. "This is Tracy Island. Go ahead, mother hen."

Gordon retorted. "Seesh, give me grief why dontcha? I was only calling to see if Alan was okay."

"I am," Alan insisted with a croak, "but some people do not believe me."

"Sorry Alan, I think majority rules on this one," Jeff replied, "Alan simply needs rest and time to recover, Gordon."

Alan rolled his eyes. He knew he was out numbered. "When I get out of here, I want to do a rotation on Thunderbird Five first, dad."

Jeff turned in some surprise. "Why?"

"Well considering the summer I have had, I have had enough excitement to last a while. I want the nice quiet confines of Thunderbird Five."

Gordon gave an unmitigated snort. "Nice? Quiet? Alan, after the coronary you nearly gave me down there, you are welcome to this place. Thunderbird Five out."

Jeff laughed and turned to John and Scott. "As for you two, I could not be any prouder. Both of you kept your heads and showed ingenuity in the face of adversity, along with saving the life of your brother." He then glanced back at the bed to find that the youngest Tracy, tired from the mission and his near brush with death, was sound asleep.

--

Jeff, Scott, and John quietly sneaked out of the infirmary and headed to the lounge, where they found Virgil seated and eagerly waiting for them. "So, did you have to chain him down?"

John shook his head. "Nah, in fact he's sound asleep. It's been a rough couple of hours for him."

Scott dropped into the nearest chair. "Try a rough couple of days for all of us. I feel like I could sleep for a week, though I don't think I'm going to tonight."

"Me neither," Virgil agreed, "Dad, do you think the Hood is gone for good this time?"

"I don't know, Virgil," Jeff replied, as he walked over to his desk and sat down behind it. "He disappeared just before we were able to escape that base. I hope so, but my gut instinct says otherwise."

John shuddered. "This was way too close. All I can remember is seeing Alan on the ground not moving and the Hood gloating over us all."

Jeff stood. "Boys, I will tell you now that it's not going to get any easier. We help people, yes, but there is always going to be an element of risk that we won't always be able to avoid."

Scott nodded and then looked at his brothers. "I think I can safely speak for everyone here, dad: We aren't going anywhere. We are behind International Rescue one hundred percent."

Jeff smiled as he saw his sons all nod in agreement. "Then it's settled, but there is one last matter I want to address: As of this point, for future missions, I will stay and man the command and control center."

When Scott tried to protest, Jeff brought up a hand. "Hear me out, Scott. I'm not getting any younger, and I think in this phase of the existence of International Rescue, it would be best served by someone in the field who can think quickly on his feet, make decisions on his own where there's nothing else to draw from, and above all else someone that would be able to lead by example." He stepped forward and looked his son square in the eyes and quirked a smile. "It'll mean more paperwork on your part, Scott, but what do you say to becoming my regular field commander?"

Scott was astounded by his father's profound words. Laughing, he smiled right back. "You have yourself a deal, dad."

Virgil scratched his chin in thought. "Speaking of commanders, I wonder how President Winter's homecoming is going."

--

Vice President Gene Prescott was a happy man. In a few hours he would reveal that he received a notification indicating that the President was dead, and then the government would have no choice but to swear him in as her successor. It was so simple, Gene wondered why he didn't think of it years ago.

He walked through the familiar corridor to the oval office. How sweet this was all going to be.

Once he reached the doors to the oval office, he found strangely enough that they were closed. Not thinking much about it, Gene opened the doors wide, intent on fully exploring his new office.

What he encountered instead was a dozen secret service agents standing inside barring his way. Each of them was equipped a laser rifle, and all of them were pointed at him. Before Gene could protest the intrusion, a familiar voice came from behind the agents.

"Gene, welcome back. I bet that you were not expecting this type of welcome."

Shock gave way to disbelief as Gene spotted President Marilyn Winters standing a few feet behind the agents, obviously very much alive. He sputtered. "You- You- but how?"

She smiled grimly and folded her arms. "Let's just say that International Rescue has more ingenuity and bravery than the whole of Shadow Force combined. You really should be careful who you ally yourself with, Gene. Gentlemen, take him away."

--

_Epilogue coming up shortly. Tis done, honest! :)_


	30. Epilogue

Epilogue

A month later, John and Scott coaxed Alan to come with them to go rock climbing. After Alan had stuck around the island first sleeping off the effects of his adventure, he then moped around for about another week, much to the frustration of everyone else on the island. Their father, after some consideration and planning (along with a few placed incentives), convinced Scott and John to get Alan off of the island by any means necessary.

After much debate, they had taken Thunderbird One to a secluded area in the Colorado Rockies, where they had proceeded for the better part of the day to climb one of the peaks. It had taken the better part of the day to climb up the peak that they were on, and Alan was content enough to stand near the edge to check out the panoramic view, though the thoughts of how they were going to get back down left him a little nervous. "Guys, tell me again why you dragged me along?"

Grinning, Scott walked over and gave Alan a hearty pat on the back. "Alan, where is your sense of adventure? Out in the open air, there's nothing else around but nature and you, the only thing keeping you from flying off into oblivion being a rope that's tied to your waist."

John piped up with a smirk. "Don't you mean correctly tied to your waist, Scott?"

The comment earned him a death glare from Scott before he started a last check of his repelling equipment and rope while continuing his explanation. "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted: it is beautiful up here, but half the fun of climbing up a mountain after all of that hard work is going down the mountain."

Alan smiled, but was still nervous. "Down the mountain?"

In reply to his question, Scott made sure his rope was secure, then turned around and with a hearty "Yee-Haw" jumped off the side and began his descent.

As Alan looked over the side watching Scott having the time of his life repelling down, he found that John was looking over the edge himself. He laughed at Alan's wide-eyed expression. "Don't mind Scott. He is just an adrenaline junkie."

He couldn't help but laugh at the statement. "What's your excuse then?"

John looked around for a moment, and then grabbed his brother in a head lock. "Because I can."

Alan squirmed for a moment before John let him go in order to prep his own gear for the journey down the mountain.

"John, what did you do the summer before you became active in International Rescue?"

John froze where he stood when he heard Alan's question. Memories of a frenzy filled summer filled his mind. "Ah, I don't think I should reveal what I did. I mean after all, it was just one summer and all."

He tried to finish up with his equipment, but Alan stepped around, the grin on his face only widening. "Aw, come on John. I won't tell anyone. I promise."

Maybe part of the truth would suffice, so avoiding his brother's gaze, John replied simply. "I wrote a book."

Alan rolled his eyes. "That sounds absolutely positively mundane. I mean you have written articles and a book already on stars and astronomy. What's so different about this one?"

John realized that his brother wasn't quite going to let this go, so he decided to back into his answer. "You remember the 'Star Rescue' series?"

The question evoked another eye roll from Alan. "Oh man, do I? That thing started with one book and was made into an animated series and a movie, not to mention has been dubbed into a dozen languages and there's enough fan clubs on the net to-"

Making the connection, his eyes widened. "Oh man, YOU wrote that book?"

John felt a flush creep up on his face. That was one fad filled summer that he did not want to relive. He finished checking the last of his equipment and gave him a smile. "Alan my lad, ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies. Now let me help you with your gear."

--

The End

_Wow, for a first adventure, it has been quite a ride. I would like to thank everyone that stayed around for the ride. It was quite a fun adventure to write and a wonderful learning experience as well. This piece probably clocks in just fewer than fifty thousand words for a reason - in order to meet the Nano goal for 2007, I branched out into a potential other story for Thunderbirds that I edited out. When I develop that second plotline, I will definitely be back. _

Take care,

Time Guardian


End file.
